Linguistic means of creating suspense in thriller novels and means of their actualization (based on the works by american and british authors)

The aim of the article is to consider linguistic means to actualize the feeling of suspense in thriller novels. The authors analyze the diverse definitions of the term "suspense" provided by different scholars. As a result of the conducted research, the latter is defined as the intense feeling that the recipient goes through while waiting for the outcome of certain events. The entire employment of suspense constantly revolves around anxiety originating from uncertainty about what is going to happen next and how this fact will affect the outcome of the narrative situation. Analysis of all the factors, which are characteristic of literary suspense, at the levels of story and discourse, will be presented in detail. It is noted that it is a common and crucial element of interest realized in literary fiction by means of stylistic, kinematic, somatic means. In fact, the first essential value of thrillers lies in the form of popular literature, which has highly predictable structures that guarantee the fulfillment of convential expectations of the audience. Traditionally, the plot of thrillers usually contains a murder or romance as well as death and crime scenes, political affairs. The stories depict adversarial interactions between the protagonist and the antagonistic characters found in prototypical suspense novels. The paper presents a thorough study of suspense technique in American and British novels "The Silence of the Lambs" by T. Harrison and "Thunder on the Right", "Nine Coaches Waiting" by M. Stewart. The analysis of the selected texts revealed the most frequently used devices in building up the atmosphere of suspense: comparative tropes, semantic repetition, expressive syntax and the significant role of artistic detail. Moreover, the study outlines the authors' (T. Harrison and M. Stewars's) ability and creative potential to invent new elements within the conventional plot structure of a thriller by giving new vitality to stereotypical characters by adding touches of human complexity and thus, embodying the personal vision.

Keywords

Authors

References