METAPHORS AND SYMBOLISM IN THE NOVELS "SILK" AND "OCEAN SEA " BY ALESSANDRO BARICCO

Kuchina Natalia

The article reveals the metaphorical images of silk and the sea in Alessandro Baricco's novels "Silk" and "Ocean Sea", identifies common features in the writer's early novels written in the 90s of the 20th centuries. There are examples of the use of allegory, synesthesia and comparison. During the analysis, it becomes clear that graphic means, tropes and figures of speech can be used together in one short sentence, which creates a special rhythm of narration and contributes to achieving high imagery of the text, helping the reader to form visual and sound associations. Literary tropes also convey the multiplicity of philosophical meanings of the sea element and silk fabric. Metaphors are analyzed to reveal the hidden meaning of what is written. The sea is presented as a comprehensive metaphor of life and death, as a path of purification and initiation, a container of truths and higher forces, while it is an allegory of the diversity of human lives and the change of generations, the futility of revenge, since existence is relative and cyclical, like ebbs and flows. Silk is an allegory of the sensitivity and insecurity of the human soul, a symbol of the interweaving of human destinies and the interpenetration of different cultures, like the interweaving of fabric threads. Also, with the help of numerous and diverse associations with the sea and silk, the writer reveals the essence of human character and the worldview of the characters.

Keywords:metaphoricity, imagery, symbolism, synesthesia, metonymy, literary tropes, Italian literature, postmodernism, Alessandro Baricco.