The test of any message that one may propose is whether it is fully and completely supported by the work's other elements.

The title (and the subtitle) that an author gives the text presents a particular focus or emphasis for the reader's attention. Take the case of Thackeray's "Vanity Fair. A Novel Without a Hero". The very name of the book suggests the message focus. It may be formulated as vanity of the society surrounding the author, the absence of real personalities capable to change anything and the appeal to get terrified by the state of things and change oneself. Such a message is backed, for instance, by the following author's digression: "The world is a looking - glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face. Frown at it, and it will in turn look sourly upon you; laugh at it, and it is a jolly kind companion; and so let all young persons take their choice" (W. M. Thackeray Vanity Fair, 11) /Underscoring is mine. V. SV. Another example of a suggestive title is Bradbury's "The one who waits". The same function is fulfilled by some other foregrounded text elements. Such as the last paragraph, epigraphs, prologue and epilogue, etc.

Author's digressions of various types often suggest an emphasis for reader's attention. Inasmuch as author's lyrical digressions, epigrams, denunciatory digressions, argumentation and commentaries are connected with the plot of the imaginative literature only due to the author's point of view on the problem and some other subjective elements of fiction, they appear to be mighty and solid explicators of author's message. Returning to "Death of a Hero" by Richard Aldington one can find the following denunciative digression: "That is why I am writing the life of George Winterbourne, a' unit, one human body murdered, but to me a symbol. It is an atonement, a desperate effort to wipe off the blood-guiltiness. Perhaps it is the wrong way. Perhaps the poison will still be in me. If so, I shall search for some other way. But I shall search. I know what is poisoning me. I do not know what is poisoning you, but you are poisoned. Perhaps you too must atone" (R. Aldington Death of a Hero, 36).

Biographical and autobiographical research is helpful and illuminating - as are the personal statements the author makes about his or her life and work in prefaces, letters, journals, notebooks and critical writings. They can tell the reader a great deal about the author, the times in which he lived and wrote, and the relationship between the author and the work. Furthermore, they can also tell us something about author's purport (intentions).

Questions to answer:

4. 1. What is in your opinion the main / basic idea of__? One should prove it.

It is indispensable to find some stylistic devices used by the author and some other elements of style to prove your point!

D. H. Lawrence is certainly correct in this respect, when he reminds us in his Studies in Classic American Literature (1923), "Never trust the artist. Trust the tale."

Useful language: In my opinion / From my point of view, the

main idea is to show the reader that  __. The message of the text can be deciphered while analyzing the imagery the author created in the text. The stylistic device of irony creates a clear image of a drab life of the "Lost generation" after WW II.

  4. 2. What is the connection between the main idea and the usage of words (possibly, belonging to different vocabulary layers: literary, neutral or colloquial) in the text?

Useful language: To describe the bad quality of living and illiteracy the author uses many vulgar words /colloquial words / words used erroneously (in the false meaning), malapropisms. To show the relations in the company of young people the author uses the slang of young generation. Lofty / bookish / high-flown / formal expressions are used in this novel to depict the stiff atmosphere of the upper' class society in the 18th century.

4. 3. What is the way of presenting the basic idea? Is it explicit (direct presentation) or implicit (hidden in the discourse)?

4. 4. How are the сontent-factual, content-conceptual and content-subtextual types of information connected with each other on the macro-level of the given text?

4. 5. How do text categories (prospection, retrospection, intertextuality, cohesion, emotiveness, modality, the title of the text, etc.) and different kinds of cognitive (hermeneutic) markers help us grasp the main idea of the text?

Take into close consideration that in some works (not few in number) the basic idea is not the most important thing and it is very difficult (if possible at all) to decode it objectively. Nonetheless, we are able to define author's purport (intention, intent) and some reasons, which made the writer create the given masterpiece (e. g. the desire to disclose the complex nature of an artist or to give the potential reader aesthetic pleasure).