Exploring the Language of Drama: From Text to Context (Interface)

by Michael H. Short

Focusing on the characterization of speech as a form of action, Exploring the Language of Drama introduces students to the stylistic analysis of drama. Here, some of the world's leading scholars demonstrate the importance of analyzing the text of drama rather than focusing on performance, presenting their approaches in an engaging and accessible style. The essays employ techniques from language analysis (specifically discourse analysis, cognitive linguistics and pragmatic) to explore the language of plays, looking at how different theories and approaches can be used to help us understand characterization in dialogue, the cognitive patterns that support the narrative and discourse of drama, and the basic mechanisms of conversation in dramatic dialogue. Each chapter ends in a summary with follow-up exercises, and offers practical advice on how to analyze a play extract and write it up as an assignment.

Mass Market Paperback

First published May 28, 1998

Reviews

[pəˈteɪtəʊ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Chapter 3 and chapter 10

[Gabrijela · Rating 4 out of 5]

This turned out to be really great book, not only for literature and language students but also for their theachers.
Althouhg I am, as a linguist, familiar with Grice's and Austin's work about speech acts and pragmatics, the book helped me to combine it with drama plays and theater.
It was actually refreshing to read about drama plays and theater through sppech act's analysis.
I would recommend this book to my students (because it can serve as a workbook) but also to anyone who is interested in broadening up their knowledge about drama and pragmalinguistics.