Pragmatics and Literature

Linguistic Approaches to Literature #35

by Siobhan Chapman (Editor), Billy Clark (Editor)

Pragmatics and Literature is an important collection of new work by leading practitioners working at the interface between pragmatic theory and literary analysis. The individual studies collected here draw on a variety of theoretical approaches and are concerned with a range of literary genres. All have a shared focus on applying ideas from specific pragmatic frameworks to understanding the production, interpretation and evaluation of literary texts. A full-length introductory chapter highlights distinctions and contrasts between pragmatic theories, but also brings out complementarities, shared aims and assumptions, and ways in which different pragmatic theories can make different contributions to our understanding of literary texts. The book as a whole encourages a sense of coherence for the field and presents insights from various approaches for systematic comparison. Building on previous work by the editors, the contributors and others, it makes a significant contribution to the growing field of pragmatic literary stylistics.

239 pages, Hardcover

Published December 5, 2019

About the author

Siobhan Chapman is Reader in English Language at the University of Liverpool, UK. Her main field of research is work in the pragmatics of literature and stylistics.

Reviews

[Julián Rivera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pragmatics and Literature is a compilation of essays that, while they mostly verge on the field of literary analysis, are first and foremost eight important contributions to what Pragmatics can do in the study of language, since literature is exactly that, the most aesthetic use of language. Chapman and Clark’s volume starts with a brief introduction on the key approaches that will be used along the book’s pages: Gricean maxisms (post-gricean and neo-gricean approaches) and (im)politeness theory.
A common feature of the book will be that not only is literary analysis richer through a pragmatic framework, but Pragmatics also have a lot of potential exploring literary texts