Axiological content of the concept youth in modern British and American literary discourse

Abstract

The proposed study focuses on establishing the content of the concept of YOUTH and its axiological potential. The paper uses an interpretive-textual analysis of the discursive embodiment of the concept in the process of distinguishing its cognitive features. The qualification of the referents is expressed by nominative lexemes for designating youth and young people as the main hypostases of the concept under study. The study qualifies the referents both explicitly – on the basis of revealing literal meanings of verbal expressions, and implicitly – on the basis of establishing the characteristics that follow from the text interpretation. The axiological content of the concept of YOUTH is structured in accordance with the meaning of its cognitive features. In the work we distinguish ontological, teleological, utilitarian, representative, parametric cognitive features, which are stipulated by significant socio-cultural, historical, moral and ethical standards and ideals. Discursive implementation of the concept of YOUTH involves analyzing the compatibility of the elements of the conceptual structure. The analysis points to the differences in the nature of the disclosure of the phenomena under study at the linguistic and cultural levels. In the English-language literary discourse of the twenty-first century young people appear as a kind of “fuel” for the demographic and socio-economic prosperity of the society; at the same time, youth is regarded as a period of determining the individual’s place in life, the development of world outlook and values, and the achievement of economic independence. The suggested analysis allows us to draw conclusions about the evolution of the concept of YOUTH in the literary discourse.