Exploring the Language of Drama
From Text to Context
Published on 28. May 1998
Book
Paperback/Softback
192 pages
978-0-415-13795-9 (ISBN)
Description
Exploring the Language of Drama introduces students to the stylistic analysis of drama. Written in an engaging and accessible style, the contributors use techniques of language analysis, particularly from discourse analysis, cognitive linguistics and pragmatics, to explore the language of plays.
The contributors demonstrate the validity of analysing the text of a play, as opposed to focusing on performance. Divided into four broad, yet interconnecting groups, the chapters:
open up some of the basic mechanisms of conversation and show how they are used in dramatic dialogue
look at how discourse analysis and pragmatic theories can be used to help us understand characterization in dialogue
consider some of the cognitive patterns underlying dramatic discourse
focus on the notion of speech as action
there is also a chapter on how to analyse an extract from a play and write up an assignment
The contributors demonstrate the validity of analysing the text of a play, as opposed to focusing on performance. Divided into four broad, yet interconnecting groups, the chapters:
open up some of the basic mechanisms of conversation and show how they are used in dramatic dialogue
look at how discourse analysis and pragmatic theories can be used to help us understand characterization in dialogue
consider some of the cognitive patterns underlying dramatic discourse
focus on the notion of speech as action
there is also a chapter on how to analyse an extract from a play and write up an assignment
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Postgraduate
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 11 mm
Weight
301 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-415-13795-9 (9780415137959)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
01/2002
Routledge
€68.49
Available for download
E-Book
01/2002
Routledge
€68.49
Available for download
Book
05/1998
Routledge
€207.30
Article not available at the moment
Persons
Based at the Department of Linguistics and Modern English Language, Lancaster University, Jonathan Culpeper is Lecturer and Mick Short is Professor of English Language and Literature. Peter Verdonk is Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Amsterdam.
Content
Notes on contributors, Acknowledgements, 1. Introduction, 2. From dramatic text to dramatic performance, 3. Turn management in drama, 4. Odd talk: studying discourses of incongruity, 5. Implicature, convention and The Taming of the Shrew, 6. Accessing character through conversation: Tom Stoppard's Professional Foul, 7. (Im)politeness in dramatic dialogue, 8. 'Catch[ing] the nearest way': Macbeth and cognitive metaphor, 9. Three models of power in David Mamet's Oleanna, 10. 'Unhappy' confessions in The Crucible: a pragmatic explanation, 11. The give and take of talk, and Caryl Churchill's Cloud Nine, 12. Advice on doing your stylistics essay on a dramatic text: an example from Alan Ayckbourn's The Revengers' Comedies, Bibliography, Index