Parenthetical Constructions in Victor Pelevin's Novel “Chapayev and Void”

Abstract

The objective of the study, the results of which are presented in this report, is to identify and characterize the structural and functional parameters of inserted structures in Viktor Pelevin’s novel “Chapaev and Emptiness”, taking into account the genre originality of the work of art. Published in 1996 in the magazine "Znamya," this novel by one of the cult Russian writers of the new generation was later characterized as "the first Zen Buddhist novel," while Viktor Pelevin himself called this work "the first novel whose action takes place in absolute emptiness."

Inserted constructions are understood as any syntactic units that have semantic, intonational, and punctuation autonomy, separated from the base sentence by parentheses or dashes. They are located in the middle or end of the sentence and are not elements of the base sentence, which is emphasized by the special intonation of inclusion. Using a continuous sampling method, 97 inserted constructions of varying semantics and structure were identified in the text of the novel "Chapayev and Void." Drawing on previous work, the material selected for analysis was examined in the following areas: 1) structural analysis (punctuation, localization, length, and connection to the main sentence structure); 2) description of the functions of inserted constructions in the text of the novel. The analysis showed that inserted constructions of the insertion are a means of influencing the reader, since through these syntactic units the author’s subjective attitude to the message is explicitly or implicitly expressed, thereby forming in the reader the author’s point of view on the information being conveyed.