Point of attack as a text introduction generating device

The article deals with Tomashevskiy’s classification of types of introduction in the fictional text: direct exposition and point of attack. In the case of direct exposition, the text is opened with an introductory resume, while the use of the point of attack means that the text is opened with a speech o catchword of a character. I propose to consider the point of attack as a text generating device, particularly, as an analepsis generating device. The point of attack shows different functions. In some texts where the point of attack is located in “the character’s present”, it fits to cause the analepsis in “the character’s past”, which gives an explanation of a material introducted by the point of attack. There are also such texts where the point of attack works as introduction of connected motifs, or of a topic to be explained further, and in these cases the point of attack device can produce a large text segment if it brings various motifs or potentially core topic to be elaborated in the analeptical fragment. In both cases the analeptical fragment can be conveyed through a character’s direct speech or through the so-called author’s speech. The different works of famous Russian writers of 19-20 centuries such as Chekhov, Kuprin, Ostrovskiy, Aksionov are taken as primary sources for the analysis.