Linguistic and Stylistic Features of French Surrealist Poetry (Based on the Collection la douleur" by P. Eluard)

Abstract

The article is devoted to a comprehensive linguistic and stylistic analysis of the first surrealist collection «Capitale de la douleur» (1926) by P. Eluard in French. It reflects the development of the poet’s unique individual style. The research is based on the linguistic and poetic approach, according to which individual style is understood as a system of formal linguistic methods that organize writer’s artistic world. The purpose of the work is to identify the characteristic features of Eluard’s surrealist poetics at the phonetic, lexico-semantic and syntactic levels. The main attention is paid to linguistic techniques that form surrealistic hyperreality: the destruction of traditional syntax and logical connections, the creation of multifaceted images using various stylistic figures, a certain choice of vocabulary, phonetic organization of the text, etc. By the example of the poem «La courbe de tes yeux», it is shown how the author manages to create a poetic wordplay resorting to such techniques as hypallaga, chiasmus, sound painting, etc., and depict an artistic universe where the beloved becomes a creator goddess, and the love is an instrument of cognition of the world. As a result, it is concluded that P. Eluard’s innovation lies in the transformation of the basic principles of surrealist writing, the use of various stylistic techniques at all levels of language, as well as the creation of unconventional poetic images, symbols and meanings in order to convey the desire for freedom and harmony of inner and outer world and the all-encompassing power of love.