(Im)politeness in McEwan’s Fiction: Literary Pragma-Stylistics

Description

This book is a pragma-stylistic study of Ian McEwan’s fiction, providing a qualitative analysis of his selected novels using (im)politeness theory. (Im)politeness is investigated on two levels of analysis: the level of the plot and the story world (intradiegetic level) and the level of the communication between the implied author and implied reader in fiction (extradiegetic level). The pragmatic theory of (im)politeness serves the aim of internal characterisation and helps readers to better understand and explain the characters’ motivations and actions, based on the stylistic analysis of their speech and thoughts and point of view. More importantly, the book introduces the notion of “the impoliteness of the literary fiction” – a state of affairs where the implied author (or narrator) expresses their impolite beliefs to the reader through the text, which has face-threatening consequences for the audience, e.g. moral shock or disgust, dissociation from the protagonist, feeling hurt or ‘put out’. Extradiegetic impoliteness, one of the key characteristics of McEwan’s fiction, offers an alternative to the literary concept of “a secret communion of the author and reader” (Booth 1961), describing an ideal connection, or good rapport, between these two participants of fictional communication. This book aims to unite literary scholars and linguists in the debate on the benefits of combining pragmatics and stylistics in literary analysis, and it will be of interest to a wide audience in both fields. Acknowledgements Contents 1 Why Ian McEwan and Literary Pragma-Stylistics? 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Approach and Methodology 1.3 Structure of the Book 1.4 Aims of the Book References 2 Pragmatics and the Analysis of Fiction 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Politeness and Impoliteness: Key Concepts and Theories 2.2.1 Linguistic Politeness 2.2.2 Linguistic Impoliteness 2.3 (Im)politeness in Literature: An Overview 2.3.1 (Im)politeness in Old English and Middle English Literature 2.3.2 (Im)politeness in Renaissance Literature 2.3.3 (Im)politeness in the Eighteenth-Century Novel and Drama 2.3.4 (Im)politeness in Contemporary Drama and Fiction 2.4 Summary Notes References 3 Narrative Tradition in Fiction: A Pragma-Stylistic Approach 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Implied Author, Implied Reader and the Question of Intention 3.3 Stylistics and Fictional Analysis 3.3.1 From Russian Formalism to Stylistics, Speech Acts and Implicature 3.3.2 Stylistics and Schema Theory 3.3.3 Stylistics, Point of View and Speech and Thought Presentation 3.3.3.1 Linguistic Indicators of Viewpoint 3.3.3.2 Speech and Thought Presentation: Free Indirect Speech (FIS) and Free Indirect Thought (FIT) 3.4 Ian McEwan: The Stylistic Tradition in Fiction 3.5 Summary Notes References 4 Intradiegetic (Im)politeness or How the (Im)politeness Theory Is Used for Internal Characterisation 4.1 Introduction 4.2 (Im)politeness, Science and Religion in Enduring Love 4.3 Impoliteness and Immorality in Amsterdam 4.4 Atonement, (Im)politeness and Empathy 4.5 Summary Notes References 5 Extradiegetic (Im)politeness or How the Implied Author Communicates with the Reader 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Saturday: Terrorism and (a Lack of) Imagination 5.3 Collapsible Viewpoints and Their Consequences in Solar 5.4 Nutshell or Political Incorrectness in Utero 5.5 Summary Notes References 6 Conclusion References References Index