STRUCTURAL AND SEMANTIC PECULIARITIES OF LITERARY WORKS BY H.P. LOVECRAFT (BASED ON THE NOVELLA “AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS”)

Abstract

The following article deals with the lexico-semantic text analysis based on the novella by H.P. Lovecraft “At the mountains of madness”, the most distinguishing characteristic of which is amalgamation of several genres. Due to fact that Lovecraft’s works are primarily regarded as horror fiction, whereas the role of mysticism is largely understudied, the topicality of the research hinges upon the necessity to highlight linguistic means in the text structure that reflect the mystical component and enable the author to create the atmosphere of tension. As a result, it is proved that interpenetration of genres does not diminish the importance of the mystical component. On the contrary, it enhances its influence on the compositional organization of the text, variegating lexico-grammatical and syntactical relations. The lexico-semantic analysis of the text fragments reveals the pervasive influence of the mystic component on the text structure, which conduces to the expansion of new semantic space and consequently contributes to the unmistakably Lovecraftian style.