The Linguistic Structural Conceptual Framework Of Literary Nonfiction

This paper is an attempt to study the linguistic layer of the memoir-writing genre primarily as exploration of linguistic mentality of a person (linguistic person, character), through which both the human being and the social environment become recognizable. This research describes the conceptual framework of the linguistic structure of the literary nonfiction by employing the following two principles: definition of the linguistic complexity of text-writing techniques and presentation of aesthetic value of these texts. A number of descriptive, stylistic and structural methods employed in the study show that memoir writing undergoes significant changes and enriches itself through various linguistic forms and internal conceptual frameworks. The author’s presence in the text is often manifested through its original word structure essentially expressed in the common stylistic system of the work. References to time and places in texts present non-fiction character in a new light. The writer’s primary goal is not enriching the literary language, but ensuring the composition’s linguistic authenticity and individuality. Flexibility of the genre is enhanced by intertextual manifestations. Lastly, memoir-writing may have a therapeutic effect on the author.

“Very much alive and very much under threat”: Chasing the Coffee-Flavored American Dream in Dave Eggers’s Monk of Mokha

This essay examines the manner in which Dave Eggers’s recent work of literary nonfiction, The Monk of Mokha (2018), sets out to amplify the voices of the marginalized by chronicling the adventures of a young Yemeni-American in search of the best coffee in the world. This takes the protagonist from the infamous neighborhood of his birth in San Francisco, “a valley of desperation in a city of towering wealth,” to his trials and tribulations in the war-torn homeland of Yemen. I will argue that the narrative, which blurs the lines between fiction and nonfiction and combines history, politics, biography and thriller, highlights the American entrepreneurial zeal and contagious exuberance which still feed the immigrant American Dream and proves that social mobility in the United States is still attainable, sometimes as a result of chasing the world’s most dangerous cup of coffee. Moreover, I argue that the protagonist’s endeavor can be read within the larger context of contemporary political consumption as an example of social justice activism and ethics-driven buying.

ENCHANTED WITH THE CITY OF THE SOUTH – NEW ORLEANS IN LAFCADIO HEARN’S LITERARY NONFICTION

This paper is devoted to the New Orleans stage in the writings of the nineteenth-century American literary journalist, Lafcadio Hearn. The major focus is on the writer’s fascination with the city’s unique Southern character which was skillfully grasped and conveyed by Hearn during the decade of his residence in New Orleans. The articles published in the Cincinnati Commercial and the Daily City Item are discussed in terms of the author’s sensual and emotional approach towards what he considered asthe greatest assets of New Orleans: its tropicality, the Creole element, the climate, and the women. Special attention is paid to Hearn’s sensitivity to feminine beauty asthe crucial determinant of the city image he managed to describe for future generations.