Lost landscapes of childhood: An ecostylistic analysis of <i>The Issa Valley</i>

Abstract The Issa Valley , a novel by the renowned Polish émigré poet and writer Czesław Miłosz, is partly autobiographical rendition of Miłosz’s early years spent on his family estate at Szetejnie in Lithuania. omniscient narrator presents adolescence gentry boy, Thomas Dilbin; second, equally important protagonist eponymous Valley. book an homage paid to beauty Lithuanian nature world childhood memories; as such, it invites attempt ecostylistic interpretation, which main aim this study. methodology applied analyze its English translation follows Geoffrey Leech Mick Short’s taxonomy linguistic aspects relevant when studying fiction, such context, lexicon, syntax, figuration. Furthermore, analysis focuses figuration imagistic potential picturing landscape. Master tropes (simile, metaphor, synecdoche, irony, antithesis) work three textual levels: micro- macro- megatropical . This scrutiny proves that instance what I call existential ecology with antithesis dominant backbone; also demonstrates reflects intensely corporeal experience young Thomas. contribution article scholarship offers reading has not been so far, specifically from lexical, grammatical, tropological perspectives.