ALLUSION IN A LITERARY TEXT AS A SOURCE OF LINGUISTIC AND COUNTRY STUDIES COMPETENCE FORMATION IN THE FUTURE PHILOLOGISTS TRAINING (THE CASE-STUDY OF THE NOVEL “THE GOLDFINCH” BY D. TARTT)

Abstract

The article deals with the allusion as a source of formation of linguistic and cultural competence of philology students in the conditions of artificial language environment. First of all, the place of linguistic and country studies competence in the system of training future philologists is determined and the interdisciplinary connections that contribute to the formation of such competence in general and to the understanding of linguistic phenomena in context in particular are investigated. The novel by the contemporary American writer D. Tartt “The Goldfinch” demonstrates an extremely wide thematic attribution of allusions; among the allusions that can serve as a source of linguistic and country studies competence, we distinguish socio-historical, geographical, literary, musical, cinematic and everyday allusions. Therefore, linguistic and country studies competence will contribute to the understanding of such a culturally rich literary text and its deeper reception. Therefore, the material selected on the basis of the text of D. Tartt’s novel “The Goldfinch” allows us to analyse the influence of cultural contexts reflected in allusions on the development of students' professional skills and, thus, the formation of linguistic and country-specific competence. Allusion is seen primarily as a cultural phenomenon and as a source of linguistic and cultural information: it is logical to assume that when creating an allusion, the author is guided by the level of culture of the mass reader and thus each allusion reflects a general cultural component common to the cultures of the addressee and the addresser. The reality associated with the national and cultural area is the source of cultural marking of linguistic units, and therefore the ability to explicate the meaning of an allusion means the need for linguistic and country-specific competence to decode this information. Conversely, the process of decoding allusions is a source of linguistic and cultural competence development for students of philology and makes it possible not only in the classroom, but also in the literature of English and German-speaking countries.