UNRAVELING NOSTALGIA: FORM-CONTENT HARMONY IN BRINGING TONY HOME RELATED TO ITS LINGUISTIC STRUCTURE AND POETIC STRUCTURE

Abstract

This study explores the novel Bringing Tony Home by Tissa Abeysekara, focusing on the chemistry between its linguistic and poetic structures and their manifestation of the form-content relationship within the text evoking the writer’s nostalgia for the past. The novel portrays the life events of the narrator, a filmmaker, recounting his youthful adventures and the return to his childhood village to reminisce about the past and bring back his beloved dog, Tony, to his new home. This qualitative study employs Sosnovskaya's Analytical Reading as a methodology to analyze linguistic elements such as phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and discourse analysis, as well as poetic elements like tropes. Through a three chapter structure, the novel unfolds various periods of the narrator's life, with the first and last chapters linking with the second chapter through introspective flashbacks, emphasizing the theme of nostalgia. The first-person narration further immerses the reader into the narrator's emotional experiences, while the use of compound sentences, hyphenated words, and dashes enriches the detailed descriptions, enhancing the theme of nostalgia for the past. The incorporation of Local Expressions and phrases and code switching reflects the writer's identity as a Sri Lankan, arousing cultural familiarity and historical connections. Additionally, the study analyzes the use of tropes such as the month of March, pastoral elements, and diction of fairytales, which further contribute to the narrator's nostalgia and cultural associations. The novel's poetic structure, including auditory and visual imagery, creates a cinematic quality, allowing readers to vividly experience the narrator's recollections. The symbolic significance of train sounds and whistles underlines the transient nature of life and memories. Ultimately, the findings indicate that the linguistic and poetic structures in Bringing Tony Home are intertwined and inseparable, effectively manifesting the theme of nostalgia for the past, and presenting readers a prevailing vision into the profound form-content relationship within the text. The novel's linguistic richness and poetic beauty offer readers a powerful insight into the complexities of the human experience and the lasting connections that nostalgia can evoke.