A pragmatic approach in literary science

The article is devoted to the question of a pragmatical approach formation in modern literary criticism. Literary pragmatics is considered as an independent direction including a multidisciplinary reflection on literature as a communicative phenomenon and reading as a communicative event. Four areas forming the pragmatic direction in literary science are allocated. They are phenomenology of reading, research of literary behavior, history of reading and narration pragmatics. Within the description of each of the areas the emphasis is placed on works of its founders. In the development of the phenomenological thought of reading, the philosophical hermeneutics of G.G. Gadamer, German receptive esthetics (W. Iser, H.R. Jauss), the semiotic theory of interpretive cooperation of U. Eco, the theory of narrative identity of P. Ricreur are most important for the formation of the literary pragmatics of the direction. The development of the theory of literary behavior primarily includes reflection on Yu.M. Lot-man's and S. Greenblatt's concepts. Both of them postulate studying of reading from the point of view of the reader's use of its results. History of reading is one of the newest aspects of research of reading as a pragmatic mode of the life of literature. This direction formed from the historical perspective of the receptive and esthetic school. The main content of the concept of R. Chartier, the founder of this direction in the French historical science, is also described. One more area of studying the functioning of fiction is the pragmatics of narration which developed within non-classical narratology. Within this direction communicative parameters of a narrative are studied. In Russian literary criticism, this perspective goes back to Bakhtin's concept of eventness. It is noted that when the category of the reader is identified as a narrative instance, modern literary criticism sees an increasing contact of the narrative and receptive perspectives, which is proved by the development of narratology, both Russian and foreign. A conclusion that literary pragmatics develops because of the integrated interest of two research prospects is drawn. The first prospect is connected with the research of the status of a literary work in consciousness and real life-creating practice of the recipient. The second prospect is formed by the interest in how the text structure codes its connection with the potential reader, what aspects of the artistic structure form the intentional orientation of the text, and how it impacts the addressee. In total it is possible to combine efforts of these two research prospects in a uniform direction, for they both are supported by the idea of the communicative orientation of a literary text.

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