Stylistics of the text
An outline
1. Text in speech communication, its categories and features.
2. Semantic structure of the text, its unity (cohesion).Ultra or Supra-Phrasal Units (SPU).
3. A paragraph as a structural feature of the text
4. Text as representation of intentions, speech acts, communicative acts, communicative semantic integrity.
5. Time and Space relations.
6. Setting, Atmosphere.
7. Characterization. Character drawing.
8. The Character Novel and the Dramatic Novel.
9. Aspects of the comic.
10. Tragic elements in modern literature.
STYLISTICS of the TEXT is a branch of linguistics of the text, it studies:
1. Various types of texts;
2. Their stylistic peculiarities;
3. Means of text development;
4. Speech norms in different functional styles and types of speech (monologue, dialogue, polylogue);
5. Individual styles (idiolects).
All these categories are interrelated and interdependent. The functional styles are characterized by definite sets of text categories.
Style and stylistics are applied very widely being adjacent to other humanistic disciplines (aesthetics, pragmatics, sociology, logics, psychology, literary criticism, etc.) It is now regarded that stylistics should be concerned with units larger than a sentence, being not restricted by sentence boundaries. The internal mechanisms of the text should be revealed. TEXT (textus, lat.) is the UNITY (interrelation) of utterances, ULTRA-PHRASAL units, fragments and paragraphs, united grammatically and logically speech acts. Any speech act is a certain utterance (It is raining.), differingin meaning, structure and length. The general feature of any speech act is in its personal attitude of the speaker to the addressee, supplying him with information.
The TEXT is characteristic of its CATEGORIES: SEMANTIC and STRUCTURAL. They are:
1) TEXT’S structural subdivision;
2) COHESION;
3) CONTINUITY;
4) AUTOSEMANTIC CHARACTER;
5) MODALITY;
6) RETROSPECTIVE CHARACTER;
7) INTEGRITY and COMPLETENESS;
8) INFORMATIVE CHARACTER.
Some scholars attempt to establish clear-cut boundaries between linguistics and stylistics, reducing them to the level of the text. A.Hill maintains that linguistics “stops with the border of the sentence, whereas a larger area of language study which is not bound by the limits of sentences is … called the area of stylistics.” He regards stylistics as a kind of hypersyntax.
Sol.Sapota also thinks that the “maximum unit of linguistics is the sentence, a larger unit, the text, serves as the basis for stylistic analysis.
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M.A.Halliday and R.Hasan hold that linguistics should know the semantic resources for text construction. One of the main components, making it a text is that of COHESION, i.e. “relations between 2 or more elements in a text that are independent of the structure…” A semantic relation of this kind may be set up either within a sentence or between sentences; with the consequence that when it crosses sentence boundaries it has the effect of making 2 sentences cohere with one another”. The relations between a personal pronoun and an antecedent proper name (John…he), between words repeated in the text, between synonyms (Apple… fruit), between the elliptical form (can’t and the verb “jump” in JUMP – I can’t). Cohesion expresses the continuity existing between parts of the text; it is expressed partly through grammar, partly through the vocabulary.
In spoken language it can be expressed through intonation. But cohesive relations are not concerned with structure. Cohesion depends not only on the presence of the explicit anaphoric items but on the semantic relations.
“Jan sat down to rest at the foot of a huge beech-tree. Now he was so tired that he soon fell asleep; a leaf fell on him, and then another, and then another, and before long he was covered with leaves, yellow, golden and brown”. Here leaf ties with the beech-tree. The two are not clearly identical in reference, since tree and leaf are notsynonyms, but the interpretation of leaf depends on beech-tree. We know that the leaf was the beech-leaf.
A text is not a grammatical unit larger than a sentence. IT DOES NOT CONSIST OF sentences; it is realized by and encoded in sentences.
Text is defined as a semantic unity of language in use, spoken or written, that forms a unified whole. It is defined by its length. It may be a proverb, a public notice (NO SMOKING!), a speech at the meeting, or a novel. The investigation of the properties of the text gives an opportunity to expose various problems concerning
Ø the organization of paragraphs,
Ø the difference between written and spoken language,
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Ø the language differences between different authors, etc.
M.A.Halliday and R.Hasan single out several categories of the concept of COHESION. It may be expressed through:
· reference,
· substitution,
· ellipsis,
· conjunctions,
· lexical repetition.
Each is represented by its particular features: repetitions, omissions, recurrences of certain words and constructions. COHESION is common to all texts, “it makes a text a text”. The authors point out that any text displays “a consistency of “register”, it fits a given set of situational features (field), the place assigned to language acts within the event (mode), within the relations of participants (tenor).
Text-theories enrich stylistics and the concept of style; they give an opportunity to concentrate not only on expressiveness and variations as specific linguistic properties but also on semantics and textual organization, communicative functions, etc. Every form of discourse (narrative, sonnet, drama, etc.) has its own typical organization and discourse structure. COHESION ties together the related parts and provides the necessary interpretation of the text by the reader.
The list of the most important cohesive devices in English:
A: Definite reference:
1. Personal pronouns;
2. the definite article;
3. deictics: this, that, these, those, etc.
4. Implied deictics: same, different, other, else, such, etc.
5. Substitution: pro-forms such as one, ones, do and so.
6. Ellipsis: omission or deletion of the elements.
7. Formal repetition of words, morphemes, phrases, etc.
8. Elegant variation: use of an alternative expression.
B: Linkage:
1. Coordinating conjunctions: and, or, but, both … and, neither … nor, etc.
2. Linking adverbials: for, so, yet, however, therefore, meanwhile, for example, etc.
“ Why can’t we be friends now?” said the other, holding him affectionately. It’s what I want. It’s what you want”.
But the horses didn’t want it – they swerved apart; the earth didn’t want it, sending up rocks through which riders must pass single file; the temples, the tank, the jail, the palace, the birds, the carrion, the Guest House, …: they didn’t want it, they said in their hundred voices, “No, not, yet,” and the sky said “No, not there”. (E.M.Forster. The Passage to India)
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On the other hand, texts of many kinds contain certain portions that are particularly independent (esp. songs and verses). Some authors employ a kind of regular alteration of the cohesive density to achieve a sort of periodic rhythm. Very often writers begin their stories exploiting “false” cohesive sentences: (for ex. with reference element “it” and the reader finds himself in the middle of the story.
“One thing was certain, that the white kitten had had nothing to do with it; it was the black kitten’s fault entirely” (Alice in Wonderland). It is only 2 paragraphs later that the reader learns that “it” refers to unwinding and entangling a ball of wool. The reader’s interest is immediately engaged, he tries to interpret this “it”.
The authors stress that “the linguistic analysis of literature is not an interpretation of what the text means; it is an explanation of WHY and HOW it means what it does”.
Styles can be characterized by means of sentence length and complexity, which are text properties. Types and density of conjunctions in a text may reflect text structure, which is stylistically relevant.
· The grouping and ordering of sentences into larger units,
· the ways by which sentences are linked to each other,
· thematic development,
· reported speech,
· indirect speech
contain stylistic characteristics and are discussed by different authors.
The study of sequences in dialogue (methods of opening and closing discussions, of changing the subject, etc.) is also stylistically relevant. Some writers prefer one type of cohesion to others. C.Bowlin holds that cohesive ties differ from writer to writer.
R.Harweg has advocated a method of “regeneration” of texts. The text is “corrected” by rewriting it and thus bringing it more closely into line with a set of ideal principles of text grammar. The original text is compared with this ideal “regenerated” form.
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The structure of the speech act is:
ADDRESSER – INFORMATION – ADDRESSEE.
1. Thus ANTROPOCENTRIC (personal) character of the speech act, being most important.
2. It unites TIME and SPACE components.
3. The ADDRESSER is the active component of the utterance, which is individual and subjective.
4. The ADDRESSEE is passive, but he is very important for communication.
5. Any speech act is COMMUNICATIVE, so the addresser modifies his speech to be understood by the addressee.
Speech acts are studied by the linguistics and stylistics of the text. Linguistics of the text studies the structure of speech units, their subdivision, cohesion and unity.
INFORMATIVENESS is the leading category of the text. Any text is meant to inform the reader. Information is the signification of the concepts delivered through perception of the world. It is called SEMANTICS of the utterance.
I.R.Galperin distinguishes:
1) CONTENT-FACTUAL or CONTENT-GRASPING INFORMATION (facts, actions, events, people, phenomena). CONTENT-FACTUAL (CFI) information is contained in what we have already named matter-of-fact styles, in newspaper style, in the texts of official documents, etc.
2) CONTENT-CONCEPTUAL INFORMATION (CCI) (the author’s perception of the world, notions, ideas, concepts).
CONTENT-CONCEPTUAL information is that which reveals the formation of notions, ideas and concepts. This kind of information is not confined to merely imparting intelligence, facts, (real or imaginary), descriptions, events, proceedings, etc. It is much more complicated. CCI is not always easily distinguished. It does not lie on the surface of its verbal exposition. It can be grasped after a minute examination of the components of the text provided that the reader has acquired the skill of supralinear analysis. Moreover, it may have various interpretations and often reveals different views as to its purpose.
Thus CCI is mainly found in the BELLES-LETTRES functional style. Here it is supreme over other functional styles, though it may be found in diplomatic texts, etc.
The classification of information into CCI and CFI should not lead to the conclusion that texts of the scientific style are deprived of concepts. The word “conceptual” has multi-dimensional parameters, i.e. it can be applied to different phenomena. Scientific treatises and monographs are characterized by original concepts, i.e. theories, hypotheses, propositions. But these concepts are explicitly formulated and need no special stylistic inventory to decode them, whereas the concepts in works of art are to be derived from the GESTALT of the work.
“GESTALT” is a term in psychology, which denotes a phenomenon as a whole, a kind of oneness, as something indivisible into component parts. The term has been borrowed by linguistics to denote the inseparability of the whole of a poetic work. So the aim of CCI is to emphasize the crucial difference between explicit and implicit, which needs mental effort to get at what is said by the unsaid.
3) CONTENT-IMPLICATIVE information (CII) (implied, contextual, additional meaning of sentences and supraphrasal units).
Implication is based on pragmatic, emotive, evaluative and aesthetic components of text semantic structure. Text implication is limited by the UPU or a paragraph.
Implication is accompanied by tropes (metaphor, metonymy, hyperbole, allusion, antonomasia) on the lexical level and aposiopesis, suspense on the syntactical level.
Ex.: “What shall I get you, sir?” asks a waiter in a ship’s restaurant addressing a sea-sick passenger. “Get me out of this”, is the answer. Implication is achieved through the polysemantic verb get.
“You don’t live in these parts?” asks an irksome local guide. “No, I don’t. You wouldn’t if I did”, retorts an irritated tourist.
Implication and explication (redundancy) are two indispensable components of the text contributing to emotional and aesthetic impact of the text upon the reader.
Thus INFORMATIVENESS is a text category, which in the BELLES-LETTRES style is heterogeneous and heterochannel one, aimed at revealing the CONCEPT of the work of art.
For ex. E.Hemingway’s “Cat in the RAIN” (loneliness of two people, a husband and a wife).
Different information is transmitted through different types of the text and compositional forms: DESCRIPTION, NARRATION, ARGUMENTATION, DIALOGUE and DIGRESSION.
MODALITY is based on analogy between the text and the sentence. The semantics of the sentence consists of NOMINATIVE and EVALUATIVE components. NOMINATION means naming a certain real situation.
EVALUATION is achieved through MODALITY.
V.G.Gak includes MODALITY into semantic structure of the text together with communicative and denotative components.
Z.Turaeva speaks about COMMUNICATIVE, COGNITIVE and EMOTIVE functions of the text.
EMOTIVE function is realized through MODALITY.
Ch.Bally singles out MODUS and DICTUM as the main aspects of the utterance.
MODALITY is subdivided into OBJECTIVE and SUBJECTIVE. OBJECTIVE MODALITY expresses possibilities, conditions, imperative character and necessity; true and false components. It depends upon the predicate of the sentence.
SUBJECTIVE MODALITY portrays the speaker’s attitude (feelings, emotions and evaluation).
Text modality also includes the personages’ characterization.
The choice of the theme and problems by the writer are predetermined by the category of MODALITY. It is closely connected with PRAGMATIC orientation of the writer – an appeal to the reader’s response (perlocutive and illocutive effects). It is either explicit: “Dear reader!” in novels by D.Defoe, J.Swift, J.Fowles: “I would have you share my own sense” (The French Lieutenant’s Woman), or implicit, based on different implications, EM and SD.
Actualization (foregrounding) of different parts of the text is connected with its semantic field and other dominant features. MODALITY is an inherent property of the ULTRAPHRASAL UNITS (UPU).
The CONTEXTUAL VARIETY of the text. The minimal unit of the text is SPU. The texts are subdivided into:
1) OBJECTIVE-PRAGMATIC (chapters, paragraphs, books);
2) CONTEXT-VARIATIVE (narration, description, argumentation, represented speech). The composition of the text depends upon these components.
ULTRA or SUPRA-PHRASAL UNITS (SPU) are used to denote a larger unit than a sentence. It generally comprises a number of sentences interdependent structurally (usually by means of pronouns, connectives, tense-forms) and semantically (one definite thought is dealt with). Such a span of utterance is also characterized by the fact that it can be extracted from the context without losing its relative semantic independence. This cannot be said of the sentence, which, while representing a complete syntactical unit, may lack the quality of independence.
“Guy glanced at his wife’s untouched plate.
“If you’ve finished, we might stroll down. I think you ought to be starting”.
She did not answer. She rose from the table. She went into her room to see that nothing had been forgotten and then side by side with him walked down the steps. (S.Maugham)
The next sentence of the paragraph begins: “A little winding path…”
This is the beginning of the next SPU. So a SPU is a combination of sentences presenting a structural and semantic unity backed up by rhythmic and melodic unity.
The principles to single out an SPU:
· COHERANCE,
· INTERDEPENDENCE of the elements,
· ONE DEFINITE IDEA,
· The PURPORT of the writer.
The purport is the aim that the writer sets before himself, which is to make the desired impact on the reader. So the aim of any utterance is a carefully thought- out impact.
“I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers
From the seas and the streams;
I bear light shade for the leaves when laid
In their noon-day dreams.
From my wings are shaken the dews that waken
The sweet buds every one,
When rocked to rest on their mother’s breast,
As she dances about the sun.
I wield the flail of the lashing hail,
And whiten the green plains under;
And then again I dissolve it in rain,
And laugh as I pass in thunder.” (Shelley. “The Cloud”)
There are 3 SPUs separated by full stops.
Within the first, which comprises 4 lines, there are 2 more or less independent units divided by a semicolon and integrated by parallel constructions (I bring fresh showers; I bear light shade).
Within the second SPU – there are also 4 lines - there are 2 independent ideas – the buds awakened by the dews and the earth moving around the sun. They are bound together by the formal elements when and as forming one complex sentence and a SPU. The formal means affect their semantic integrity.
The 3 SPU are united by one idea - the usefulness of the cloud giving all kind of comfort, here moisture and shade, to what is growing …showers, shade, dews, hail, rain.
THE PARAGRAPH
A paragraph is a graphical term used to name a group of sentences marked off by indentation at the beginning and a break in the line at the end. In written discourse it is an internal unity. As a linguistic category the paragraph is a unit of utterance marked off by such linguistic means as:
1. Intonation;
2. Pauses of various lengths;
3. Semantic ties of its components.
Thus the logical aspect of an utterance is always backed up by linguistic means causing an indivisible unity of extralinguistic and intralinguistic approach.
The PARAGRAPH is a linguistic expression of a logical, pragmatic and aesthetic arrangement of thought. Paragraph structure is built on logical principles in the style of scientific prose. In the newspaper style psychological principles (sensational effect, grasping capacity of the reader for quick reading, space considerations) play an important part, breaking the main rule of paragraph building, i.e. the unity of idea.
Thus BRIEF NEWS ITEMS are very often crammed into one sentence, it being a paragraph:
“PUPPET” CLAIM
China today denounced the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled god king, as a puppet of international forces opposed to Beijing and said that he would never succeed in his goal of independence for the Himalayan region.
Paragraph building in the style of official documents is mainly governed by the conventional forms of documents (Charters, pacts, diplomatic documents, business letters, legal documents, etc.) Here paragraphs may embody a number of parallel clauses, which for the sake of the wholeness of the entire document are made formally subordinate, whereas in reality they are independent items.
Ex.: “Accordingly, our respective Governments, through representatives assembled in the city of San Francisco, who have exhibited their full powers found to be in good in due form, have agreed to the present Charter of the United Nations and do hereby establish an international organization to be known as the United Nations”.
Paragraph structure in the BELLES-LETTRES and PUBLICISTIC styles is strongly affected by the purport of the author.
The writer introduces details, illustrations, comparisons, contrasts; he looks at the topic from different angles.
The length of a paragraph varies from 8 to 12 sentences. The more the paragraph is, the more difficult it is to follow the purport of the writer.
In the newspaper style most paragraphs consist of one or 2-3 sentences.
Paragraphs of a logical type are classified from the point of view of the logical sequence of the sentences into the following models:
1. From the general to the particular, or from the particular to the general;
2. On the inductive or deductive principle;
3. From cause to effect, or from effect to cause;
4. On contrast, or comparison.
So the paragraph is a compositional device aimed at facilitating the process of apprehension or inducing a certain reaction on the part of the reader. Thus the paragraph from a mere compositional device turns into a stylistic one. It discloses the writer’s manner of depicting the features of the object or phenomenon described. It is in the paragraph that the main functions of the BELLES-LETTRES style, i.e. AESTHETIC, COGNITIVE and PRAGMATIC are fulfilled.
In the paragraph of this style 2 or 3 SPU can constitute one paragraph.
The paragraph in scientific, publicist and some other styles generally has a TOPIC SENTENCE, i.e. a sentence that embodies the main idea of the paragraph or the chief thought of the writer. In the BELLES-LETTRES style the topical sentence may be placed in any part of the paragraph, it is governed by emotiveness and a natural representation. Sometimes it is impossible to decide which sentence should be regarded as a topic one.
The paragraphs in matter-of-fact styles are clear, precise and logically coherent and possess unity, i.e. express one main thought.
Paragraphs in emotive prose are combinations of the logical and the emotional. They are meant for emphasis, based on contrast or on climax.
Ex.: “In the utter darkness, the unconscious, drowning body was rolled along, the water pouring, washing, filling in the place. The cattle woke up and rose to their feet, the dog began to yelp.” (D.H.Lawrence: The Rainbow)
The paragraph as a unit of utterance is the domain of stylistics and should be studied in connection with the problems of stylistics of the text.
TIME and SPACE (CHRONOTOPIC) relations are ANTROPOCENTRIC in the BELLES LETTRES style. Retrospective and prospective development of the PLOT make the LITERARY time different from HISTORIC time (past-present-future development). Ex.: “He strode into the living-room feeling very brisk and competent. He could not know, of course, that when Louise did get home he would be out cold on the divan” (R.P.Warren: The Cave)
“And that was all a good while ago…. And Judge Irwin is dead, who leaned toward me among the stems of the tall gray marsh grass, in the gray damp wintry dawn, and said, “You ought to have led that duck more, Jack. You got to lead a duck, son.” And the Boss is dead, who said to me, “And made it stick.” Little Jackie made it stick, all right.” (R.P.Warren. All the King’s Men)
TEXT ACTUALIZATION (FOREGROUNDING)
THE TITLE foregrounds all the text categories:
INFORMATIVENESS: “Twelfth Night, or What You Will” (W.Shakespeare).
MODALITY: The Quiet American. (G.Green)
PROSPECTIVE and PRAGMATIC categories: “Murder Is Easy”;
“A Murder Is Announced.” (A.Christie)
THE EFFECT of DEFEATED EXPECTANCY: “The Comedians” (G.Green)
SYMBOLIC character: “Winter of Our Discontent” (J.Steinbeck)
ALLUSION: “In Our Time” (E.Hemingway) from the Bible: “Give us peace in our time, oh Lord!” “The Sound and the Fury” (Faulkner) from Macbeth: “Life … is a tale/ Told by an idiot, full of sound and the fury,/ Signifying nothing.” (W.Shakespeare)
TIME and SPACE relations: “From Here to Eternity” (J.Jones)
SETTING, ATMOSPHERE
In some texts the predominant atmosphere (or mood) is an element to be carefully considered. To discover the mood of a passage you may refer to the title, consult your own mind and heart, pay due attention to such contributory elements as
· the presentation of character,
· the setting,
· The art of story telling.
The setting may play an important part in the building up of the atmosphere. It can provide a clue to the writer’s intention, and through a clever manipulation, condition the reader’s reaction.
A setting may be:
1. Neutral or fairly neutral,
2. Suggestive of a mood or a certain atmosphere.
Thus the descriptions are never arbitrary but in keeping with the characters and ultimately with the effect the writer wants to create. The description of an interior often reveals the personality of a character. Environment is molded by man’s will or taste. If it is an exterior, the description of a landscape, it may be in harmony with the hero’s state of mind or personality (soul).
For example, passionate, romantic heroes (or heroines) are often set (placed) in the middle of a storm. The weather may be an important element in the creation of the atmosphere. When nature is endowed with human feelings, the technique used is called pathetic fallacy.
Environment may be:
1. Oppressive,
2. Overwhelming,
3. Producing an impression of absurdity, helplessness (the descriptions of the atrocities of war).
Colours are often more than descriptive, they are symbolic. Gray and brown may help to emphasize the theme of mediocrity of life in a city. Other colours like red, or blue, or green may suggest passion, happiness or purity and so on.
Emotion can be created in many ways, directly or indirectly. According to T.S. Eliot a great work of art must contain an objective correlative of its basic emotion. By objective correlative, he understands “a set of objects, a situation, and a chain of events, which shall be the formula of that particular emotion; such that when the external facts, which must terminate in sensory experience, are given, the emotion is immediately evoked”.
A whole range of moods can be aroused in the reader:
1. Pleasurable state of emotion, more or less intensely felt;
2. A sense of drama or sheer suspense – that state of anxious expectancy concerning the outcome of a plot or a situation.
To assess the degree of emotional responses aroused in the reader and examine the different devices (the interplay of a variety of elements) in the art of story telling, the reader should note the following means:
1. Delaying (postponing) information, withholding the knowledge of most important facts until the last moment, thus keeping the reader in expectation, eager to know what will happen next.
2. Introducing clues to implicate apparently innocent characters, sending the reader on the wrong track or, at any rate, making him share the character’s uncertainties and fears.
3. Building up to the last phase of the action, called climax, when the intensity is at its highest.
4. The rising tension, leading to the climax is generally followed by a descending movement (the anti-climax), producing a release of feeling.
The variations in tempo of the passage should be thoroughly analyzed paying attention to:
· Sound, rhythm, imagery,
· Time-markers or place-markers (historical, geographical, social, political data).
“Setting is environment; and environments, especially domestic interiors, may be viewed as metonymic, or metaphoric, expressions of character. A man’s house is an extension of himself. Describe it and you have described him.”[R.Wellek and A. Warren, Theory of Literature p.221]
CHARACTERIZATION
“The foundation of good fiction is character creation and nothing else” [A.Bennet]
The characters in a novel or a story give an impulse to the action and to the plot.
CHARACTER DRAWING
The character may be introduced by:
1. A long descriptive paragraph introducing his physical appearance and sometimes his moral and psychological nature.
2. The author may be impartial (objective) in the presentation of his characters.
3. He may portray them ironically.
4. He may identify himself completely with his creations, which become his mouthpieces.
5. Many writers use names, which through onomatopoeia or association suggest certain inherent characteristics.
6. Through the very physical appearance of the characters, especially the facial features, the author may be calling our attention to certain inner phenomena of character.
7. Characters may be revealed through mimicry, gesture, turn of phrase, or through the way they dress.
Ex.: “He was a little man, considerably less than of middle height, and enormously stout; he had a large, fleshy face, clean-shaven, with the cheeks hanging on each side in great dew-laps, and three vast chins; his small features were all dissolved in fat; and, but for a crescent of white hair at the back of his head, he was completely bald. He reminded you of Mr. Pickwick. He was grotesque, a figure of fun, and yet, strangely enough, not without dignity.” (S.M.Mackintosh).
THE CHARACTER NOVEL and the DRAMATIC NOVEL.
In the “character novel” the characters seem to have an entirely independent existence from the novel, a life outside the story, and the action springs directly from them.
In the “dramatic novel”, the characters and the plot are closely knit together.
The obvious descriptive introduction of characters may be replaced by more dramatic method. THE CHARACTERS enter the story in a more spontaneous manner and their appearance is more subtly contrived. As they join the circle of protagonists, their portrait is painted:
1. Through their action,
2. Through their own utterances,
3. Through the conversations of the other characters.
Thus the reader is left to learn and to draw his own conclusions and judge for himself with the help of suggestive details.
Time is an important element, particularly in the “dramatic novel”.
“Character is a process and an unfolding” (G.Eliot).
E.g.: J.B.Priestley “ANGEL PAVEMENT”: Mr. Golspie, Turgis, Miss Smith)
Certain passages may be considered as climaxes in the life of a character. The storyteller may describe his characters in a continuous or in a disconnected sequence. He may summarize long periods of his life in a short paragraph, or a moment of crisis reflects a whole life.
Characters, like other elements in a work of fiction (e.g. events, scenery, atmosphere), are “functions”. The reader may classify or identify the characters he comes across into traditional or historical types, such as the 18th or 19th century miser, rogue, wily servant, heartless dandy, etc. (W.M. Thackeray. “Vanity Fair”: Rebecca Sharp)
E.M.Foster differentiates between “FLAT” and “ROUND” characters, and occasionally insignificant characters. FLAT characters are descended from the “humours” of Elizabethan drama, and the “types” or caricatures of the old novels (e.g. Dickens). They are built around a single idea, trait or quality. They are static, they never change, are not allowed to develop; they are predictable, unalterable, permanent. They always lack the depth needed for a tragic or even sensitive character, but often serve as comic characters. “Types” of Dickens’ novels: Mr. Pickwick, Uriah Heap, Sam Weller.
A “ROUND” character is capable of all the human emotions from joy to sorrow. He needs space and emphasis, as he is liable to develop, to deteriorate or improve. The plot and character are closely linked. “ROUND” characters interact, play on each other, they are constantly unexpected and surprising. (R.P.Warren. “All the King’s Men”)
Style in modern writing has changed. It is difficult to find in modern novels the “types” of Dickens’ novels. The concept of the “round” character with its depth and development is changing too. The concept of PERSONALITY has been shattered by many writers, by modern human sciences (psychoanalysis, structuralism, etc.) The characters have lost all consistency; their behavior often seems strange, inexplicable and illogical. The writer uses stream of consciousness technique for depicting of the thoughts and feelings, which flow with no apparent logic through the minds of the characters. (J.Joyce “Ulysses”)
Ex.: “A hot burning stinging tingling blow like the loud crack of a broken stick made his trembling hand crumble together like a leaf in the fire: and at the sound and the pain scalding tears were driven into his eyes. His whole body was shaking with freight, his arm was shaking and his crumpled burning livid hand shook like a loose leaf in the air. A cry sprang to his lips, a prayer to be left off. But though the tears scalded his eyes and his limbs quivered with pain and freight he held back the hot tears and the cry that scalded his throat”. (J. J.: A portrait of the Artist as a Young Man).
Vivid description of the character’s state is achieved through tactile, auditory and kinesthetic vocabulary (stinging, scalding, burning; loud, crack, sound, cry); trembling, shaking, quivered, crumpled), the usage of simile and metaphor.
ASPECTS OF THE COMIC
Any incident, situation, behavior, gesture, word or phrase, anything that provokes laughter may be called comic (comical).
There are many forms of the comic, many theories to explain the causes of laughter:
1. Laughter springs from our feelings of superiority over people less fortunate, or adaptable, or intelligent than ourselves. “Laughter is nothing but the sudden glory (i.e. self-esteem) arising from the sudden conception of some eminence in ourselves by comparison with the infirmity of others, or with our own formerly”(Hobbes)
2. Laughter serves the social purpose of castigating unsocial behavior (Bergson).
3. Lack of flexibility, lack of moral suppleness and certain rigidity is ridiculous. “We laugh at something mechanical encrusted upon the living”.
4. Humour is a release from restraint, or a relief from inhibition. According to Freud wit originates from an economy of expenditure in inhibition; comedy, from an economy of expenditure in thought; and humour, from an economy of expenditure in feeling.
Comical effects are often produced by associating incongruous elements that contrast with each other:
· People who are totally different physically and mentally (Don Quixote and Sancho Panza);
· Attitudes and reactions not at all in keeping with the normal run of opinion and traditional behaviour; (Mr. Pickwick and the widow);
· Words and expressions belonging to different levels of language or words pronounced in a situation in which other types of words are expected. (“My children, my defrauded, swindled infants!”)
PARODY is a form of the comic. The most extreme forms of parody are the mock-heroic and the burlesque. If you describe low incidents, trivial events in noble, high-sounding terms you use a mock-heroic style. If, on the other hand, you make heroes (kings, princes, etc.) speak like ruffians, the effect is burlesque. In both cases a comic effect is produced by the discrepancy between manner and matter.
The word humour may have a broad or a restricted sense. It is a special aspect of the comic. Other notions or categories like wit, irony or satire generally imply different attitudes and methods. If the playwright makes use of comic devices placing his characters in embarrassing or ridiculous situations, this type of laughter is seldom humorous. It is too direct, too explicit, too obvious and too mechanical to be called humour. It is FARCE.
The humorist uses an indirect method. He generally pretends to be serious, unmoved, unconcerned (“A Jest with a sad brow”. Shakespeare). Unlike the satirist, the humorist does not take sides openly. He does not condemn or pass judgment based on explicit or implicit moral standards. He is imbued with a sense of the relativity of things.
Humour, as a mode of comic expression, is based on a simulated unawareness, a seeming indifference or naivety. A sense of humour implies a spirit of tolerance, the power of detachment, self-knowledge, self-control and the ability to laugh at oneself. Humour may be a form of defense against too much seriousness, formality or pomposity, too much passion or single-mindedness, against the absurdity of the world or of society.
IRONY describes the ideal while pretending it is the real (Bergson). HUMOUR describes the real while pretending it is ideal. Hence the humorist’s interest in reality. The humorist is a realist; an observer of life but his presentation of reality is often fanciful, original, unexpected, paradoxical, or illogical.
The ironist is often more derisive, more biting than the humorist. Irony, as a rhetorical device, is often used to denounce stupidity, hypocrisy or dishonesty. It may aim at provoking scorn, indignation, or outrage. The ironist is supposed to be less lenient, more involved emotionally. Ex.: “What a noble illustration of the tender laws of this favored country – they let the paupers go to sleep!” (Ch.D.)
There are many brands of humour and irony:
Ø Gentle,
Ø melancholy,
Ø extravagant,
Ø fanciful,
Ø bitter,
Ø sarcastic,
Ø sardonic,
Ø dry,
Ø cynical,
Ø ruthless,
Ø biting,
Ø shattering,
Ø devastating, etc…
Dombey and Son.:
“Dombey was about eight-and-forty years of age.
Son about eight-and-forty minites.
Dombey was rather bald, rather red, and though a handsome well-made man, too stern and pompous in appearance, to be prepossessing.
Son was very bald, and very red, and though (of course) an undeniably fine infant, somewhat crushed and spotty in his general effect, as yet.” (Irony: anaphora, parallelism (with antithesis), personification).
WIT is felt to be more intellectual, more brilliant, but less genial and less restrained than humour. “Humour is wit and love” (Thackeray)
An example of humour: when asked a large fee for an operation Oscar Wilde replied: “I suppose that I shall have to die beyond my means”.
An example of satirical humour from Bernard Shaw: “When a man teaches something he does not know to somebody else who has no aptitude for it, and gives him a certificate of proficiency, the latter has completed the education of a gentleman”.
Some expressions.
“The satire is merciless”.
“The atmosphere of unreality blunts the edge of satire”.
“The main source of comedy in the passage is the contrast between.. and..
“The writer exploits stylistic incongruities for comic purposes”.
“The humour of this passage lies partly in the unexpected comparison of … to (with)…
“In this passage wit is achieved by combining two ideas which are normally mutually exclusive.”
Tragic elements in modern literature
TRAGEDY relates the downfall of a character enjoying high prestige, and possessing most desirable attributes. The tragic hero is seldom a pattern of virtue, but he cannot be a villain, otherwise he would not arouse pity, which is a basic tragic emotion. In Greek tragedy, man was the victim of a blind, inescapable fate (e.g. Oedipus). In both French and Elizabethan tragedies, the conflict often sprang from a clash between passion and reason (or duty). When the hero succeeded in mastering his passions, in preserving his integrity and his grandeur, he elicited admiration from the spectators (e.g. Hamlet); when, on the contrary, passion was the victor (all-conquering and devastating), fear was experienced by the spectator. TRAGEDY raises the problem of responsibility and free will. Oedipus is not responsible for his sufferings and downfall. Fate is outside man. On the other hand, Macbeth is dominated by ambition, which is a personal flaw in his character; Phedre is tortured by her instincts: in both cases, character is fate.
Now gods and monarchs have disappeared from the modern stage, and anti-heroes have superseded heroes. The tragic is less apparent and not easily detectable in modern literature than it was in the great classical works.
The classical idea of the fall has disappeared, but tragic elements are based on the discrepancy between the ideal, the aim the character has set himself, on the one hand, and the futility of human experience on the other. In some modern works, the hero is aware of the absurdity of the world, but nevertheless puts up a brave and gratuitous fight which gives him a certain nobility (cf. The Old Man and the Sea)
PATHOS – the quality in a work, which evokes
Ø sympathy
Ø or pity
Ø or sorrow
PATHOS is generally caused by characters who act, struggle, and are to some extent responsible for their sufferings.
Modern English and American writers generally keep clear of sentimentality and grandiloquence. Reticence, economy of means is the hallmarks of many modern writers. E. Hemingway often leaves his reader to fill in the gaps in his prose, but while doing so, he still succeeds in rousing the reader’s emotions.
TRAGIC elements are caused by
Ø loneliness,
Ø the failure to communicate,
Ø emotional isolation and
Ø Alienation of characters in modern novels. They are trapped in a hostile world. The modern hero often rebels. Revolt will vary in degrees and assume many forms. It is doomed to failure most of the time, and carries tragic overtones.
Ø Failure,
Ø anxiety, and finally
Ø despair are implied under the bright surface of some sophisticated modern novels. In modern fiction a deep sense of the tragic may be in
Ø the plot,
Ø in various techniques of expressionism,
Ø in the atmosphere of bitterness or despair. Passages, in which passion is let loose, usually teem with dark images and symbols (Golding’s Lord of the Flies; Fowlers’ Collector).
“Tragedy could be defined as a universe of questions which fill man with anguish, and for which he has no reply.”(Goldmann)
Seminar 12
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