Symbolism in V. Woolf's “Orlando” (Cognitive Tools of Figurative Thought)

Abstract

The current research is devoted to the study of the oak tree symbolism in V. Woolf's “Orlando” (1928) with the dual purpose of defining its functional role in the literary text and educing cognitive and cultural foundations underlying conception and development of the symbol. The principles and tools employed for the analysis allow of tracing the formation of the symbolic domain of the Tree concept to the Proto-Indo-European period. Later accretions of symbolic meanings conditioned by a mythic and religious vision of the world produced a rich paradigm of symbolic attributes grounded in the primordial archetype and adapted to a new ideology. The in-depth research into textural peculiarities and semantic content of the discourses with the oak tree as a central leitmotif reveals “prominence” choices of attributes and intricate combination thereof.