Искусство анализа текста. = The Art of Text Analysis

Н. А. Ахренова
Л. Н. Лунькова
Ю. С. Чернякова

ИСКУССТВО АНАЛИЗА ТЕКСТА

THE ART OF TEXT ANALYSIS

Учебное пособие

Москва
Издательство «ФЛИНТА»
2024

УДК 811.111’42(075.8)
ББК 81.432.1-5я73
А95

Ре це нзе нты:
доктор филологических наук, профессор О. И. Максименко;
доктор филологических наук, профессор В. Н. Денисенко

Ахренова Н. А.
А95 
Искусство анализа текста. = The Art of Text Analysis : учеб. по-

собие / Н. А. Ахренова, Л. Н. Лунькова, Ю. С. Чернякова. — Москва : 
ФЛИНТА, 2024. — 84 с. — ISBN 978-5-9765-5499-3. — 
Текст : электронный.

В пособии представлены художественные произведения англоязычных 
авторов, охватывающие широкий временной период. Задания 
к рассказам направлены как на проверку теоретических знаний 
по курсу стилистики английского языка (функциональные стили 
речи, стилистические ресурсы языка, стилистическая дифференциация 
словарного состава), так и на совершенствование практических 
языковых навыков (интерпретация и лингвостилистический анализ 
художественного текста, дискуссия).
Учебное пособие предназначено для самостоятельной работы 
студентов старших курсов факультетов иностранных языков и педагогических 
вузов. 

УДК 811.111’42(075.8)
ББК 81.432.1-5я73

ISBN 978-5-9765-5499-3 
© Ахренова Н. А., Лунькова Л. Н.,
 
 
Чернякова Ю. С., 2024
© Издательство «ФЛИНТА», 2024

Acknowledgment

We would like to express our deepest gratitude to our teachers, 
who dedicated their time and energy to making us professionals, their 
encouragement as well as valuable and constructive suggestions. 

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION  ............................................................................................5

READING FOR APPRECIATION  .................................................................7

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. THE THING AROUND YOUR NECK  ......23

Claire-Louise Bennett. FINISHING TOUCH  ...............................................26

Raymond Carver. CATHEDRAL  ..................................................................29

Kate Chopin. A PAIR OF SILK STOCKINGS  ...........................................33

Carys Davies. THE REDEMPTION OF GALEN PIKE  ............................36

Charles Dickens. THE SIGNALMAN  .........................................................39

Charlie Fish. DEATH BY SCRABBLE .......................................................42

Rachel Gould. THUCYDIDES  .....................................................................45

Sarah Hall. THEN LATER, HIS GHOST  ...................................................48

Eli Hastings. THE CELL I’M IN  .................................................................51

Susan Hill. FATHER, FATHER  ....................................................................54

Nick Hornby. MARY POPPINS AND HENRY THE EIGHTH  .................58

Helen Phillips. THE KNOWERS  .................................................................62

Robert Sheckley. THE STORE OF THE WORLDS  ...................................65

Carol Shields. FRAGILITY  ..........................................................................68

Jeanette Winterson. ATLANTIC CROSSING  ..............................................71

Virginia Woolf. KEW GARDENS .................................................................74

INFORMATION ABOUT THE AUTHORS  ................................................77
 

INTRODUCTION

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies... 
The man who never reads lives only one.” 
George R.R. Martin

It is universally acknowledged that knowing a language is 
roughly measured by ones command in the four key language 
skills: two productive (writing and speaking) and two reproductive 
(listening and reading). But the skill which is of the utmost 
importance for the development of the other three is reading. Without 
the advanced skill of reading one can never understand a task in the 
textbook to perform even on the satisfactory level however masterful 
they are in writing, listening or speaking. 
Traditionally are distinguished such types of reading as scanning, 
skimming, reading for detail, deducing meaning from context, 
understanding text structure, extensive and intensive reading. All of 
them are equally important and serve different purposes in language 
learning. In this textbook we are going to focus on skimming 
(reading rapidly in order to get general understanding of the context), 
intensive (accurate reading for detailed understanding) and extensive 
reading (which is often called pleasure reading, when we are reading 
to appreciate a story, its plot, language, decipher the message of 
the story, etc.). The latter type of reading is crucial for advanced 
learners and speakers of a language, as analyzing a text shapes ones 
critical thinking, assists the development of communicative and 
sociocultural competence, and teaches culture and literature in its 
own right. Besides, contemporary literature, which explores the most 
urgent issues for the society, aids to create an authentic situation in 
the class and motivates students for genuine discussion. Our primary 
aim is to try to meet the personal needs of the students as well as 
syllabus requirements. 

We hope that the texts presented in this manual will not only 
appeal to your intellectual demands, but also help to understand the 
basics of interpretation of writings of different genres and become 
valuable reading matter. The twisted plots are masterfully conveyed 
by means of juicy, beautiful, colourful language with allusions to 
important social, cultural and religious themes. 
So, read, enjoy, analyze! 
 

READING FOR APPRECIATION

Most people recognize that writing a story is a creative act. 
Reading a story, however, is not less important, since it demands 
creative, active thinking and knowledge of the main laws of 
analyzing a short story. As we read any story, we are being 
absorbed by the actions or the events, we think about what is 
happening, why it is happening, and what it means. Being diligent 
readers, we are often trying to read between the lines. We notice 
and interpret clues about the plot, characters, setting, point of view, 
tone, and theme of the story, along with its possible uses of irony, 
metaphor and symbols, catching the smallest hints to the deepest 
senses. When we fi nish reading a story, we fi nd all the clues being 
put together into an interpretation of the story. In a sense, we have 
taken the author’s words and recreated the story that has originally 
been imagined.
Since reading a story is an imaginative, thus a creative, act, 
different people make somewhat different observations as they read. 
However, an active reader will keep in mind the following basic 
points which we would like to suggest. 

Action plan for literary analysis:

I. Predictably, you should start with the Introduction where 
you are to defi ne the text type or its functional style and genre, the 
theme promoted by the author, the problems raised, the cultural and 
historical background of the author and the events in the text. 
In this textbook we are concentrated on the consideration 
of fi ction, which can be: social, psychological, biographical, 
autobiographical, humorous, satirical, historical, detective, love or 
romantic, science fi ction, fantasy, fairy tale, parable, allegory, etc. 
The theme of a short story or the problem raised by the author is 
what the writer says about a certain subject, presenting his vision of 

the problem, e.g. — self-sacrifi ce requires bravery, physical death 
is unavoidable. Here comes out the question of distinguishing the 
subject of the story from the theme. It is universally acknowledged 
that a subject is traditionally stated by a word or a phrase, when the 
theme is mainly presented in a more extended fragment of a text — 
from a sentence to a paragraph. 
We are to prove our ideas by quoting rhetorical devices from 
the text, such as, for example universal binary oppositions (good 
vs evil, love vs hate, etc.), symbolism, when objects have a more 
extended meaning than their literary one (here we can speak 
about symbolism of colours or even seasons of the year, since the 
latter ones also have their symbolic meaning, e.g. spring = birth, 
renovation, youth, etc.). 

II. The next point that should be considered in your analysis
is the plot of a short story. It means that you need to give a brief 
account of the events of the story in the format of an abstract. So, 
it should include the information that best portrays the story and 
what piques your interest. You have certainly come across such 
writings on the back cover of any book. Remember that abstracts are 
restricted to not more than 150 words, that is why there is no space 
for rambling — you are to keep it short and simple.
 To produce an attractive abstract we would recommend you to 
follow these steps:
1. Read the story attentively and fi nd the key words that convey
the main idea.
2. List the characters that make the story. Then animate them
with one descriptive adjective that highlights the key quality of
the protagonist, e.g. belligerent crusader Winston Churchill.
3. Your readers need to know what your story or text is about —
explain it in two or three sentences. For this purpose, choose
catchy words that get right to the theme of the story.
4. Focus only on the most characteristic features of the
protagonist and the central feature relevant to the plot.
Write merely two-three short sentences that cover the most
important parts of the story.

5. Keep the sentences short and concise.
6. Tailor your language to the story. 
7. Choose words that evoke particular atmosphere or 
demonstrate emotions of the main characters of the story. 

III. After the abstract, you are highly recommended to speak 
about the exposition (or the beginning) of the story, then you are to 
mention when the plot reaches its highest level of excitement, or the 
climax of the story, and, fi nally, state what was the conclusion of 
the story, or its denouement. While writing about it try to consider 
whether:

● the setting is real or true to the period described in the story 
(or it is unconvincing, poorly portrayed);

● the plot is logically built, easy to follow (or it is complicated, 
disjoined); 

● the readers’ attention is kept by a suffi cient balance of tension 
and suspense.
In this part of your interpretation you are to speak about the 
confl ict of the story. It can be either internal (when characters do 
not share their thoughts with each other, what is usually manifested 
in inner speech, characters’ thoughts, etc.) and external (when 
characters openly show their contradictory relations and emotions). 
The confl ict is usually established in the exposition, then it reaches 
its peak in the climax of the story and after that the resolution of the 
confl ict is presented in the denouement of the literary piece. 

IV. It is rather important to speak about the setting of a short 
story, which can be identifi ed as physical (places, objects, the laws 
of nature, sensuous descriptions and details), temporal (time period, 
length of time, perception of time), and cultural features (cultural 
environment, patterns of behavior, and beliefs dominating in the 
society and in the period of time described in a short story) of the 
narration and the created world. The description of the setting is 
crucial, since the atmosphere of the story affects us both emotionally 
and intellectually.

V. Another point to consider, essential for a quality analysis and 
understanding the meaning of the text, is the type of narration. 
There are four main types of narration:
— fi rst of all, there is omniscient narrator that can be compared 
with the author, knowing the story and the events in their 
depth; 
— secondly, we may come across limited omniscient narrator, 
who refl ects and speaks the mind of only one character (and 
this character is usually the protagonist); 
— thirdly, fi rst-person narration, the key task of which is 
to refl ect the narrator’s state of mind that determines the 
emotional impact of the story; 
— fi nally, the fourth type of narration is called the objective 
or dramatic: the narrator of this type may be compared to 
a cameraman who transmits the events and actions of the 
characters to the reader; narrator is objective, dramatic and 
presupposes the view from the outside. 

VI. Having considered the points mentioned above, pass on to 
sketching the characters of the story, as through their portrayal any 
author tries to verbalize the ideas and thoughts that will certainly 
help you to decipher the main concept of a short story. You need 
to pay attention to 1) whether the characters are collective images, 
original or stereotypic, true-to-life or imaginary; 2) their most 
prominent qualities, which can be given directly through the author’s 
characterization or indirectly through dialogues and descriptions 
given by other characters, by inner monologues, by actions and 
reactions to the event; 3) whether they develop or remain static. 
Characters can be either simple or fl at, having one or two 
prominent traits, they are close to stereotypic ones (misers, a jealous 
spouse, etc.) or complex / round: the characters of this type have 
numerous, often confl icting, personality traits, they experience a 
wide range of emotions and feelings. 
Characters who do not change throughout the story are static 
ones, and those who alter their behavior patterns, beliefs, values are 
considered to be dynamic. 

While describing characters pay your attention to such lexical 
and stylistic means as epithets, comparisons and similes, descriptive 
adjectives, adverbs, verbs, etc. 

VII. Further on you need to consider the individual features 
of the style of the author, which can be refl ected in the careful 
choice and arrangement of words and sentences, types of dialogues 
(natural, unreal, forced) and in the way how the atmosphere is 
conveyed (tension, anger, joy, hatred, sadness, etc.).

VIII. To conclude your interpretation, you had better dwell upon 
the concept of a story, which means to look upon the attitude of the 
author / narrator to the character; idea of the story and the problem 
raised; whether some new aspects of the theme have been brought 
by the author to make it more profound; if the problem put forward 
is topical and the title refl ects the main idea. State you attitude to the 
problem. 
While writing the analysis of a literary text bear in mind that 
you need to support and prove your ideas by giving examples of the 
phonetic, lexical, syntactical and graphic stylistic devices. We would 
like to remind you about some of them.
Authors resort to phonetic stylistic devices, such as: onomato-
poeia, alliteration, assonance, rhyme, and rhythm to create a 
more vivid atmosphere, to arouse emotions in readers, to produce 
a certain acoustic effect and to give emphasis to some utterance. 
A lot of inexperienced readers mistakenly think that phonetic 
stylistic devices are commonly used in poetry, but they are also 
very often used in fi ction and even in the texts of publicist style 
to stir the readers’ emotions and immerse the readers in the plot of 
the story. 
Let us start with the onomatopoeia which is understood as such 
a combination of speech-sounds that imitates sounds produced in 
nature, by objects, by people and by animals. The examples of this 
phonetic stylistic device can be the following words: chirp, bang,