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LITERARY DISCOURSE AS SOCIAL INTERACTION: AN INTERPERSONAL RHETORIC APPROACH
Abstract
The purpose of the presented research was to analyse conversational exchanges between the speakers (protagonists) in a novel. The main objective was to revisit the conception of interpersonal rhetoric [9], illustrate its explanatory value and reveal particular practices of speakers that point to their specific communicative intentions and ambitions. The method used can be best described as pragmatic analysis designed within the analytical toolkit of interpersonal rhetoric. This method enabled the exploration of speakersВ’ practices with regard to (first- and second-order) pragmatic principles and analysis of how their choices in saying and implicating reveal the effects and force of conversational implicatures. Focusing on the above-stated aims of research, the historical thriller The Interpretation of Murder [11] was chosen as the subject of analysis, in which psychoanalysis and interpretation of (e.g. a patientВ’s/victimВ’s) responses, the unique application of professional expertise in psychoanalysis, palpable rivalry between scholars, as well as a desire for international recognition provide rich and appropriate material for analysis. The analysis resulted in a series of interesting findings, namely those related to interfaces between being cooperative and polite in communication, where an asymmetrical social relationship and contrasting status of interlocutors was expected. Similarly, cases were recorded where speakers opted for irony and banter in types of conversations where a symmetrical social relationship and equal scholarly status was assumed. The analysis also enabled exploration of how the social status and social relationships of speakers were revealed via conversational implicatures alongside the content of talk. As a result, the presented research contributes new insights into the scholarly debate on interpersonal pragmatics, mainly by uncovering how interpersonal relations and attitudes of protagonists can be inferred and interpreted via cognitive processing of particular cultural, historical and social contexts in a novel. Correspondingly, the findings demonstrated that approaching literary discourse analysis via a linguistic pragmatic approach was relevant and beneficial.
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