Prose Miniatures of A. Givargizov from the Book “Transition”: Experience of Analysis of a Creolized Text

The existing studies of techniques and strategies of text creolization prove the interest of scientists in semiotically complex objects that combine the principles of verbal and visual coding of information. However, the creolized prose miniature for children is a little-studied phenomenon, although it occupies a significant place in the history of children’s literature and the modern literary process. The aim is to analyze the features of creolized prose miniatures for children created by modern writer Arthur Givargizov and illustrator Victoria Semykina. The research material is prose miniatures from the book “Transition” by Arthur Givargizov. The research is carried out in line with the semiotic approach to text analysis, based on literary works on prose miniature, including in the works of modern children’s writers, as well as on techniques and strategies of text creolization.The creolized prose miniature for children is an integral verbal-visual phenomenon that incorporates the properties of various sign systems. Its characteristic features are a laconic plot and (or) figuratively completed verbal text that makes up a figurative and semantic unity with visual elements.Prosaic miniatures can go back to a variety of genre matrices. Artur Givargizov turns to the genres of anecdote and fiction. The absurdist poetics of the texts also determines the specifics of the illustrations: they show the artist’s play with proportions, onomatopoeia is used as elements of illustration, etc.Thematically, the miniatures of Givargizov’s book “Transition” beat the title of the book. In general, they are about the rules of a child’s existence in social and fantasy-game realities, about the possibilities and difficulties of transition from one to another. Another meaning of the title of the book is the comprehension of the difficulties of transition from the language of traffic rules symbols to the language of the game, which cause communicative failures in the relations of children and adults. When creolizing miniatures of the book “Transition”, different strategies are used: in most cases, the image frames the text, creating additional semantic accents and bringing the artist’s interpretation into the ideological and thematic field of the work. But in a number of A. Givargizov’s miniatures, the visual appearance of the printed text created by V. Semykina is turned into part of the illustration: the font and its location completes the image, which, in turn, complements or reinforces the associative and ideological-thematic content of the verbal text. The figurative-semantic fusion of the verbal and visual components in the book “Transition” allows us to talk about a creolized text. Through the strategies of croelization by Arthur Givargizov and Victoria Semykina, the author’s game is realized with the reader/viewer, who is invited to grasp the semantic relationship of the verbal and visual components of the text.

creolized text, children’s literature, prose miniature, game, A. Giargizov, V. Semykina