Boyko, M. E. Character Reduction: Characters of Actors in Factual and Imaginary Discourses

Abstract: The article contains a logical summary of the term ‘character’. The definition offered by the author of the article allows to apply this term not only to people but also to actors, both factual and imaginary ones. This outlines a new field of research called the ‘actor character analysis’ and establishes a framework for structural-hermeneutic analysis of actors’ characters. It has been proved that a necessary stage in each procedure for defining human character is character reduction, i.e. reduction of all variety of character features to a particular discrete set of features. This new approach casts light on nature and functions of character reduction. No matter how many discrete character features we define by using formalized and poorly formalized methods, this is just a tiny drop in the bottomless ocean. Continual character contents cannot be studied even by the most thorough discrete analysis and described by natural verbal language. Only character reduction allows to cover the logical gap between the discrete and the continual.

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