Rogoza O. Structural, Compositional, Semantic, and Pragmatic Features of French Epistolary Novel of the 18th – 20th Centuries (A Study of Ch. de Laclos’, H. de Balzac’s and H. de Montherlant’s Novels)

This dissertation focuses on the study of French epistolary novel as a specific phenomenon of literary prose that descends from the combination of the letter as a form and the novel as a genre. The study of the 18th – 20th centuries works enabled to trace the French epistolary novel evolution in the diachronic aspect. Such an approach seems quite justified in establishing the regularities of literary language development, as well as its style differentiation. The dissertation determines the place of epistolary style in the system of functional styles and reveals pragmatic characteristics of French epistolary novel. Structural characteristics of French epistolary novel are disclosed by means of pragmatic segmentation of its composition. The dissertation is also aimed to elaborate the epistolary novel structural typology, determining the compositional factors that affect the functioning of letters in epistolary novel, as well as establishing free discourse forms. Stylistic means of character’s portrayalin French epistolary novel are analyzed; irony is considered within O.Ducrot’s polyphony theory context, and the functioning of intertextual ties in French epistolary novel is studied.