Linguistic devices of artistic expression in the French-language version of Samuel Beckett’s short story “The Expelled”

The study aims to identify the linguistic devices of artistic expression used by Samuel Beckett to create absurdist imagery in the French-language version of the short story “The Expelled”. The article examines the features of the artistic text, the notion and conception of absurdist literature, the role of metaphors and syntactic constructions in shaping the system of images, and the features of Beckett’s prose. The novelty of the study lies in determining the role of metaphor and syntactic constructions in creating works of absurdist literature. The research resulted in an understanding of the significance of metaphor, figures of speech, and syntactic constructions in creating texts of absurdist literature in Beckett’s writings, which can be applied, to some extent, to the analysis of other works of this genre. The short story “The Expelled” features leitmotifs of alienation, existential fear, and death, as evidenced by semantic groups of metaphors. At the textual level, the most productive method for creating an absurdist style is through figures of speech and syntactic constructions. Various types of repetition are most frequent, including simple repetitions consisting of several words or phrases appearing throughout the text. Rhetorical questions, through which the characters address not only themselves but also the reader, are also common.