This paper offers a study of the “Free Indirect Style” (nesobstvennoprjamaja
reč’) in the second part of the novel “Zavist’” (Envy) by the
Russian writer Oleša. The Free Indirect Style is the stylistic-syntactic
method of transmitting other’s people speeches, which consists in the
union of the subjective plan of the narrator with the subjective plan of
the character, so that in one sentence two differently orientated speeches
mutually overlap.
The study begins with an introductory illustration of the Free Indirect
Style, its syntactic formulation, its lexical features and its stylistic
implications. After the general view of the method itself, there is the
distinction of the various cycles of the Free Indirect Style which
compose the second part of Oleša's novel. A cycle is dedicated to each
of the main characters (there are five cycles altogether), which are
linked together by the same function: revealing the inner life, the
psychology, the particular characteristics of each character, and at the
same time, show the attitude of the narrator (or more precisely of the
author himself) towards these characters.
