The Pragmatics of Fiction: Literature, Stage and Screen Discourse

by Miriam A. Locher, Andreas H Jucker

Overview

Drawing on a wide range of fictional texts from Shakespeare and Austen to Game of Thrones and the lyrics of ‘We Shall Overcome’, this textbook shows how pragmatic analyses can uncover the performative elements that create and shape characters for an audience.
By exploring fictional language, the book investigates different forms of interpersonal communication, such as politeness and impoliteness, as well as the nature of poetic language and the language of emotion. With exercises, discussion topics, suggestions for small-scale research projects and further reading, it shows just how fascinating a challenge fictional language can pose to pragmatics, and illustrates the richness of fictional language as a source of data for pragmatic research.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781474447942
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	04/13/2021
Series:	Edinburgh Textbooks on the English Language - Advanced
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	5.43(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Miriam A. Locher is Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Basel in Switzerland.

Andreas H. Jucker is Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Zurich in Switzerland

Table of Contents

List of figures and tables; To readers; Acknowledgments　Part I: The pragmatics of fiction as communication1. Fiction and pragmatics1.1 Introduction1.2 The scope of fiction1.3 The scope of pragmatics1.4 The levels of communication in fiction1.5 Fictional data for pragmatic research1.6 The aims of this textbookKey concepts; Exercises; Further reading

2. Fiction and non-fiction2.1 Introduction2.2 Fictional utterances as ‘non-serious’ speech acts2.3 Literary models of fiction2.4 A pragmatic model of fiction2.5 Fictitious worlds and their extensions2.6 ConclusionsKey concepts; Exercises; Further reading

3. Literature as communication3.1 Introduction3.2 Communicating literature3.3 Participation structure: The recipients3.4 Participation structure: The creators3.5 The complexities of performed fiction3.6 The audience talking back3.7 ConclusionsKey concepts; Exercises; Further reading　Part II: The pragmatics of story worlds4. Genres of fiction4.1 Introduction4.2 Structures of expectation in face-to-face communication4.3 Structures of expectation in written communication4.4 Structures of expectation in fiction4.5 Frames within frames: intradiegetic and extradiegetic4.6 ConclusionsKey concepts; Exercises; Further reading

5. The narrative core5.1 Introduction5.2 Stories as fundamental meaning making units in discourse5.3 Stories in fiction: from starting point to intertextuality5.4 Stories in fiction: story world and narratorial voice5.5 ConclusionsKey concepts; Exercises; Further reading

6. Character creation6.1 Introduction6.2 Multimodal cues in character creation6.3 Contrasts: Regional, social and ethnic variation in past and present6.4 Multilingualism in fictional character creation6.5 Alienation effects: past and future6.6 Translation challenges for character positioning6.7 ConclusionsKey concepts; Exercises; Further reading

Part III: Themes in the pragmatics of fiction7. The performance of fiction7.1 Introduction7.2 The role of dialogue in fiction7.3 Planning, production and interaction 7.4 Features of orality7.5 ConclusionsKey concepts; Exercises; Further reading

8. Relational work and (im/politeness) ideologies 8.1 Introduction8.2 Relational work and (character) identity construction8.3 Relational work in fiction8.4 Fiction as locus for discursive im/politeness ideologies8.5 Censuring and manufacturing8.6 ConclusionsKey concepts; Exercises; Further reading　9. The language of emotion9.1 Introduction9.2 The nature of emotions9.3 Two modes of presenting emotions in fiction9.4 Emotion cues in fiction9.5 The paradox of fiction: Real and fake emotions9.6 ConclusionsKey concepts; Exercises; Further reading

10. Poetic language10.1 Introduction10.2 Poetic effects10.3 Metaphors10.4 Irony10.5 ConclusionsKey concepts; Exercises; Further reading　11. Fiction, pragmatics and future research11.1 Introduction11.2 Fact, fiction and the fictional contract11.3 Distinctive pragmatic features of fiction11.4 Outlook and future researchKey concepts; Exercises; Further readingAppendices

Editorial Reviews

Few books pull off the feat of being easy to read yet profound, but this does. Wide-ranging in scope, it shows the pragmatic complexities of fictional data, and the rewards for both pragmatic theorising and literary endeavours. This book is a landmark on the map of scholarship.

Jonathan Culpeper

Overall, this book is well structured, convincingly argued and comprehensibly written. As Locher and Jucker state, The Pragmatics of Fiction: Literature, Stage and Screen Discourse has successfully concepturalised itself such that “any student interested in fiction and pragmatics in general can benefit from it”.

Journal of Pragmatics - Huihui Jiang