Kuznietsova O. Postmodern comic idiodiscourse of Dave Barry

The object-matter is postmodern comic idiodiscourse of Dave Barry, the subject-matter are components of Dave Barry’s idiostyle in its relation to the functions and postmodern techniques of the comic. This thesis is aimed at revealing specific features of postmodern comic idiodiscourse of Dave Barry, which envisages a study of text-discursive components interaction and postmodern techniques as well as establishing the role of the theme-rheme mechanism in creating the comic effect. The methodological basis of idiodiscourse is the functional-communicative text stylistics. The study of postmodern comic idiodiscourse of Dave Barry is novel since it has not been the subject of linguistic analysis before. Idiodiscourse grounds on the notion of creativity. Comic idiodiscourse is shown to rely on the author’s carnival mentality which reveals itself in creative images, themes and plots. The functions of comic idiodiscourse are established with regard to the communicative purpose of Dave Barry. This research is the first of its kind to single out and apply the theme-rheme mechanism of creating comic. The theoretical value of the thesis is that its results are a contribution to the discourse theory, text stylistics, linguistic stylistics and theory of intertextuality. The applied value of the obtained results is determined by the prospects of their use in the lecture courses on English stylistics (themes ‘Text Stylistics’, ‘Functional Styles’, ‘Stylistic Semasiology’), linguistic British and American studies (theme ‘The USA: the Country and the People’), in optional courses ‘Discourse Analysis’, ‘Basis of Linguistic Theory of Text and Communication’, ‘Text Interpretation’ as well as in PhD research, further graduate and postgraduate research