Language, Life and Play in O. Henry's Short Stories
Sophisticated language of O. Henry's short stories derives from the hackneyed language of stories published in American magazines, dual guidance by mass and elite readers' tastes, keen linguistic feeling framed by years of dictionary studying, and complicated vision of life. Trope and 'bivoiced' word (being the two types of expression divided by M. Bakhtin) coexist in O. Henry's writings as a result of his dual aesthetical aim: at depicting life complicacy and parody making. We identify five main directions in O. Henry's work with linguistic material: stylistic redundancy and text compression, estrangement, distant concepts confronting, paradox, parody and profanation. Up to 80 stylistic devices are involved.