Tegelaskategooriad ja tegelase kujutamise vahendid Väinö Linna romaanis

Abstract

The aim of the research is to provide a survey of character background, its development in the course of time, and the study of characters today; to present a systematic insight into character treatment on the basis of literary theory. The starting point is the textual treatment that analyses character representation in The Unknown Soldier - character categories and the forms and means of character representation. The study should result in finding a model of deep structure for character representation. This model can probably be used in the interpretation of Väinö Linna’s novels, as well as for the works of other authors. The system of character creation (character forming principles used by the author) can be found by employing structural methods. The author of the present thesis uses the so-called reconstructive method, which means character separation from the story and its analysis on the basis of every single fact, event, and characteristic feature. The analysis process begins with registering the information of character behaviour and being, which, in the course of study, changes into more general covering categories. On a later level, a kind of common denominator appears that can be generalised to a characteristic feature and, finally, to a characteristic. As a result, character unity appears that bears significant meanings and regularities. Character here becomes an abstract structure of a story that can be treated as a network of characteristic features. Represented character unities are diminished to the level that bear significant meaning in the analysed piece of literature (i.e. the model of deep structure for character representation) (Chapter 7). This kind of model can be recognised in any piece of literature. The practical value of the research lies in giving answers to the questions how to read a character (understand and analyse) and how talk about him/her (what principles, means and terms to use). It also helps to draw conclusions about the characters as a system in this or that author’s work, and what methods might help to do that. Character treatment in the present thesis might enlarge possibilities to analyse literature in our general and higher educational institutions.