J 2018

The cognitive potential of antithesis: 'To be or not to be' in Hamlet's signature soliloquy

SHURMA, Svitlana and Wei-lun LU

Basic information

Original name

The cognitive potential of antithesis: 'To be or not to be' in Hamlet's signature soliloquy

Authors

Edition

English Text Construction, Amsterdam, John Benjamins, 2018, 1874-8767

Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Article in a journal

Field of Study

60200 6.2 Languages and Literature

Country of publisher

Netherlands

Confidentiality degree

is not subject to a state or trade secret

References:

Organization unit

Faculty of Arts

DOI

UT WoS

000443323800007

EID Scopus

2-s2.0-85052695176

Keywords in English

antithesis; blend; conceptual oxymoron; mapping; parallel texts

Tags

International impact, Reviewed
Changed: 19/5/2022 14:30, Mgr. et Mgr. Stanislav Hasil

Abstract

In the original language

This paper investigates the working of antithesis in Shakespeare’s most famous soliloquy “To be or not to be” and its three Ukrainian translations. In cognitive poetics, antithesis is often viewed as a verbal variety of conceptual oxymoron. However, this paper argues for distinguishing antithesis from conceptual oxymoron based on consideration of the different processes at work behind their creation and reading. Significantly, in antithesis the emergent meaning retains the dichotomy of two input spaces rather than creating a new one, as happens in conceptual oxymoron. In this context, we consider antithesis in English-Ukrainian translations against the backdrop of Kaluża’s (1984) reflection on asymmetry and irreversibility in antithesis. As will be seen, renditions into Ukrainian change the perception of the original antithesis prompted by structural and semantic changes in the translations.