Treść książki

Przejdź do opcji czytnikaPrzejdź do nawigacjiPrzejdź do informacjiPrzejdź do stopki
Foreword
Thisbookistheoutcomeofanattempttoansweraseeminglynaïvequestion:
ΩWhatisitthatmakesacollectionofsentencesintoastory?».Iexamined
avarietyoflanguagephenomenasuspectedofplayingaroleinthebuilding
ofastory.
IhaveusedasmydatashortstoriesbyStanisławLem,anauthorwhoneeds
nointroductionandachoicethatdoesnotneedtobedefendedfromthepointof
viewoftheartisticvalueofthetext.IseeTheStoriesofPirxthePilotasexcellent
materialforanalysissincetheyrepresentsophisticatedcontemporaryPolish
fiction(asopposedtocolloquial,uneditedstories),witheachofthestories
actuallyΩtellingastory»andΩmakingapoint».
ThestudyisconductedthroughaveryclosereadingofLem)stextandis
abundantinexamples;oftenquitelengthyquotationsareneededtofoundmy
arguments.Ibelievethatnolinguisticinvestigationcanbebasedonself-made
languagespecimens,leastofallinvestigationsintonarrativestructure.Irefrained
fromfullyglossingtheexamplesandofferedinsteadrelevantgrammatical
informationandEnglishtranslation.Imadeanefforttokeepthetranslationas
closetothePolishoriginalasEnglishwouldallowandIamawareofthefact
thatforliterarypurposesquiteadifferentrenderingwouldberequired.
Iwasveryfortunatetoconductmystudyintheinspiringenvironmentofthe
DepartmentofLinguisticsattheHebrewUniversityofJerusalem,beingableto
discusspartsofthebookwithcolleaguesfrommyDepartmentandthe
DepartmentofClassics.IwishtothankArielShisha-Halevyforreadinganearly
versionofthisbookandforhisvaluablecomments.Iamespeciallyindebtedto
HannahRosénforherpenetratingreadingofthemanuscriptandherreadiness