REPRESENTATION OF THE CONCEPT “WEALTH” IN SAUL BELLOW’S NOVEL “THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH”

Abstract

https://doi.org/10.18522/1995-0640-2026-3-80-89

The concept “wealth” is one of the basic constituents of American culture associated with the idea of the American Dream which is relevant to these days. It is also the key concept of American fiction, represented in the works of many American writers. In the article the peculiarities of the definitional, associative, imaginative and evaluative aspects of the concept “wealth” in Saul Bellow’s novel “The Adventures of Augie March” are revealed, and the linguistic means expressing them are described. The definitional aspect of the concept “wealth” is manifested through the nouns and adjectives, directly nominating this phenomenon. The associative aspect of the concept “wealth” is displayed through the words of various parts of speech that belong to the following topics: “money”, “business and entrepreneurship”, “investment”, “property”, “employees”, “cars”, “clothing”, “jewelry” and denote other attributes of wealth. The imaginative aspect of the concept “wealth” is actualized through the portrayal of a rich heir and an immigrant eager to get rich. The choice of these types of people is determined by the literary genre and trend and is closely connected with the evaluative aspect of the concept as the depiction of characters and the implied disapproval of the writer expressed by epithets, irony, antonomasia, parallel constructions and other stylistic devices reveals his negative attitude to wealth as social phenomenon.

Key words: concept, concept “wealth”, American literature, American dream, S. Bellow