Nonsense as a Literary Device in Dr. Seuss’ “If I Ran the Zoo”

Abstract

The paper deals with nonsense which is considered to be the hallmark of English literature. Researchers tend to distinguish between nonsense as a genre and nonsense as a literary device. This paper focuses on nonsense as a literary device, which is one of the features of nonsense as a genre. The study is based on “If I Ran the Zoo” by the famous American children’s literature writer Theodor Geisel or better known as Dr. Suess. Due to the fact that he studied literature at Oxford he is said to have inherited the English tradition of nonsense. Moreover, some researchers call him a follower of Roald Dahl’s writing style. Dr. Seuss thought of nonsense and fantasy as vital parts of both children’s and grown-ups’ life. In the paper theoretical background of nonsense and the language base for nonsense as a device ae presented. The authors demonstrate the results of the linguistic analysis on all language levels that Dr. Seuss refers to: phonological, lexical, syntactic, semantic and graphic levels. It is found out that nonsense as a literary device is based on the principles of the language game on different language levels. However, in Dr Seuss’ “If I Ran the Zoo” the author makes all the devices simpler so that they are more understandable for the target readership. Overall, since the book was originally written for children nonsense gets a bit simplified in it.