3. The pragmatics of the genres of fiction
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Janet Giltrow
Abstract
With a principal but not exclusive focus on literary fiction, this chapter takes a phenomenological rather than formalist approach to genre, and looks for explanation in the sociality of language users’ experience. Section 2 finds such an approach in Levinson’s Activity Types, in aspects of historical pragmatics, in Goffman’s frame analysis, in Rhetorical Genre Theory, and in Moretti’s “distant reading” of literary types. Aligning with Grice’s Maxims and, in particular, with the “weak implicatures” of Sperber and Wilson’s revision of Grice, Section 3 reviews pragmatic accounts of fiction (Adams, Mey, Pilkington, Black) and also stakes, with Wilson, a fundamental continuity between fictional uses of language and other uses. With this continuity in view, Section 3 emphasises a social-action rather than aesthetic account of fiction genres: fiction genres build on language users’ capacity for invention (Chafe); for accommodating to overhearing (Clark); for “engrossment” (Goffman); for drawing inference from the representation of others’ voices (e.g. Bakhtin, Vološinov); and above all for weak implicature - in fiction deriving uncertain inferences at the outer limit of what a writer might plausibly have intended to mean. Hazarding a social explanation for literary fiction, Section 3 suggests that the exploitation of these capacities by literary fiction genres, in their long and unceasing development, up-dates readers’ intelligence of the social order. As that social order changes, so will the conditions of this intelligence. The chapter mentions and concludes with brief discussion of “meta-genre” (Giltrow): talk and activity around a genre, and their social ramifications.
Abstract
With a principal but not exclusive focus on literary fiction, this chapter takes a phenomenological rather than formalist approach to genre, and looks for explanation in the sociality of language users’ experience. Section 2 finds such an approach in Levinson’s Activity Types, in aspects of historical pragmatics, in Goffman’s frame analysis, in Rhetorical Genre Theory, and in Moretti’s “distant reading” of literary types. Aligning with Grice’s Maxims and, in particular, with the “weak implicatures” of Sperber and Wilson’s revision of Grice, Section 3 reviews pragmatic accounts of fiction (Adams, Mey, Pilkington, Black) and also stakes, with Wilson, a fundamental continuity between fictional uses of language and other uses. With this continuity in view, Section 3 emphasises a social-action rather than aesthetic account of fiction genres: fiction genres build on language users’ capacity for invention (Chafe); for accommodating to overhearing (Clark); for “engrossment” (Goffman); for drawing inference from the representation of others’ voices (e.g. Bakhtin, Vološinov); and above all for weak implicature - in fiction deriving uncertain inferences at the outer limit of what a writer might plausibly have intended to mean. Hazarding a social explanation for literary fiction, Section 3 suggests that the exploitation of these capacities by literary fiction genres, in their long and unceasing development, up-dates readers’ intelligence of the social order. As that social order changes, so will the conditions of this intelligence. The chapter mentions and concludes with brief discussion of “meta-genre” (Giltrow): talk and activity around a genre, and their social ramifications.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter i
- Preface to the handbook series v
- Preface ix
- Table of contents xi
- 1. Introducing Pragmatics of Fiction: Approaches, trends and developments 1
-
I. Pragmatics of fiction as communication: Foundations
- 2. Participation structure in fictional discourse: Authors, scriptwriters, audiences and characters 25
- 3. The pragmatics of the genres of fiction 55
- 4. Fictional characterisation 93
- 5. The role of dialogue in fiction 129
- 6. Narrative perspectives on voice in fiction 159
- 7. Pragmatics of style in fiction 197
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II. Features of orality and variation
- 8. Oral features in fiction 235
- 9. Doing dialects in dialogues: Regional, social and ethnic variation in fiction 265
- 10. Multilingualism in fiction 297
- 11. The pragmatics of estrangement in fantasy and science fiction 329
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III. Pragmatic themes in fiction
- 12. Pragmatics and the translation of fiction 367
- 13. Subtitling and dubbing in telecinematic text 397
- 14. (Im)politeness in fiction 425
- 15. (Im)politeness and telecinematic discourse 455
- 16. Stance in fiction 489
- 17. Language and emotion in fiction 515
- 18. Language change and fiction 553
- Bionotes 585
- Index of authors of scholarly work 591
- Index of authors of fictional work 603
- Index of fictional sources 605
- Subject index 609
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter i
- Preface to the handbook series v
- Preface ix
- Table of contents xi
- 1. Introducing Pragmatics of Fiction: Approaches, trends and developments 1
-
I. Pragmatics of fiction as communication: Foundations
- 2. Participation structure in fictional discourse: Authors, scriptwriters, audiences and characters 25
- 3. The pragmatics of the genres of fiction 55
- 4. Fictional characterisation 93
- 5. The role of dialogue in fiction 129
- 6. Narrative perspectives on voice in fiction 159
- 7. Pragmatics of style in fiction 197
-
II. Features of orality and variation
- 8. Oral features in fiction 235
- 9. Doing dialects in dialogues: Regional, social and ethnic variation in fiction 265
- 10. Multilingualism in fiction 297
- 11. The pragmatics of estrangement in fantasy and science fiction 329
-
III. Pragmatic themes in fiction
- 12. Pragmatics and the translation of fiction 367
- 13. Subtitling and dubbing in telecinematic text 397
- 14. (Im)politeness in fiction 425
- 15. (Im)politeness and telecinematic discourse 455
- 16. Stance in fiction 489
- 17. Language and emotion in fiction 515
- 18. Language change and fiction 553
- Bionotes 585
- Index of authors of scholarly work 591
- Index of authors of fictional work 603
- Index of fictional sources 605
- Subject index 609
