The module aims to introduce the students to the study of communication. It does so by discussing concepts and methods that are relevant to the study of literature as well as the study of communication. The module provides an insight into Bakhtin’s writings which link these two areas of study.

The module focuses on two different approaches to the study of communication, namely pragmatic politeness theory and conversation analysis, and illustrates how these two methods can be used to examine gender-specific language use. The dialogues that will be analysed will be derived from literary work that the students are familiar with. A selection of the novels and plays from which extracts are drawn is included in Recommended Reading; in addition students will be asked to contribute their own ideas for text-based analysis and discussion.

The module aims to

• draw a parallel between the study of literature and the study of communication

   

• show how this is accomplished in Bakhtin writings

   

• introduce the students to politeness theory, conversation analysis and the study of language and gender

   

• examine the ways in which plays and novels can be used to analyse aspects of language use, such as politeness

   

• illustrate how such analyses can contribute to the interpretation of literary work

   

• and to the study of diachronic aspects of politeness

   

By the conclusion of the module students will

• have developed an interdisciplinary approach to the study of text and talk

   

• be able to link concepts from literary theory with those used in pragmatics

   

• be able to identify and analyse pragmatic data found in literary work

   

• have a knowledge of quantitative and qualitative methods in studying language use

   

• be able to broaden their analyses of literary work by incorporating pragmatic analyses

   

Week 1

Introduction to the aims of the module and the topics covered.

Short description of the module’s assessment.

Brief introduction to the study of communication drawing parallels to the study of literature.

Week 2

Lecture on the relationship between text and reader across different types of texts, ranging from a novel to a public sign and drawing a parallel to the relationship between speaker and hearer in everyday communication.

Week 3

Lecture on the role of context in interpreting literary and other texts and the role of context in interpreting utterances in everyday communication. Short introduction to the field of pragmatics, which differs from semantics by taking context into account when interpreting meaning.

Week 4

Lecture introducing Bakhtin’s work on the novel and the ideas about language contained in it.

As Bakhtin’s concept of ‘dialogism’ is both novelistic and linguistic, it can be applied to the study of the (‘double-voicedness’ of the) novel and the study of (the dialogical structure of) spoken interaction, which, in turn, can be studied on the basis of plays and dialogues in novels.

Week 5

Seminar: Discussion of Bakhtin’s “The Problem of Speech Genres”

Lecture introducing Austin ’s speech act theory and comparing it with Bakhtin’s theory of speech genres.

Set text: Bakhtin, Michail, M. “The Problem of Speech Genres” in C. Emerson & M. Holquist

(eds) Speech Genre and Other Late Essays. Austin: University of Texas Press: 60–103.

Week 6

Lecture introducing the main concepts of Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory.

Seminar: Discussion of “Politeness Theory and Shakespeare’s four major tragedies” and of the applicability of politeness theory to the study of communication in Shakespeare’s works.

Set text: Brown, Roger and Gilman, Albert. 1989. “Politeness theory and Shakespeare’s four major tragedies.” Language in Society 18: 159–212.

Week 7

Seminar: Discussion of Lakoff’s “Language and woman’s place”

Lecture: Introduction to the study of language and gender

Set text: Lakoff, Robin. 2004. Language and woman’s place. In Mary Buchholtz (ed.), Language and Woman’s Place. Text and Commentaries. Revised and Expended Edition. Oxford : OUP. 39–102.

Week 8

Group presentations: Pragmatic analyses of gender (class or age) differences in performing speech acts and using politeness formulae in a choice of plays and novels.

Texts to be chosen by the students

Week 9

Lecture discussing the differences between written and spoken language

Seminar: Interpretation of a passage from Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” and of a film version of the same fragment.

Texts to be chosen by the students

Easter Vacation

Week 10

Lecture: Introduction to the methods of conversation analysis

Seminar: Transcription and interpretation of a fragment taken from a film version of a novel or play

Text and film to be chosen by the students

Week 11

Group presentations: Analyses comparing an interaction taken from the original novel / play and a film version thereof using the methods of conversation analysis

Texts to be chosen by the students

Christmas Vacation

Week 12

Summary of the module’s contents, advice on writing the assignment

Week 13

Exams

Week 14

Exams

Week 15

Exams

Assessment deadlines

Essay: 25^th May 2011

Essential Reading

The literary texts used in the module will be chosen according to the students’ interests.

Austin, John L. 1962. How to do Things with Words. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Bakhtin, Michail, M. “The Problem of Speech Genres” in C. Emerson & M. Holquist (eds) Speech Genre and Other Late Essays. Austin: University of Texas Press: 60–103.

Brown, Penelope and C. Levinson, Stephen. 1987. Politeness. Some Universals in Language

Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Brown, Roger and Gilman, Albert. 1989. “Politeness theory and Shakespeare’s four major

tragedies.” Language in Society 18: 159–212.

Lakoff, Robin. 2004. Language and woman’s place. In Mary Buchholtz (ed.), Language and

Woman’s Place. Text and Commentaries. Revised and Expended Edition. Oxford : OUP.

39–102.

Recommended Reading

a. Primary Material

Selected extracts from the following works – selection to be discussed in class

Amis, Martin. Various Novels

Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion

Bennett, Alan. Talking Heads

Chekhov, Anton. Darling

Chopin, Kate. The Awakening

Flaubert, Gustave. A Simple Heart

James, Henry. The Portrait of a Lady

Joyce, James. Dubliners, eg. “Evelyn” 

Lawrence , D. H. Short Stories

McEwan, Ian. Atonement

Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night, As You Like It and The Merchant of Venice

Smith, Zadie On Beauty

Tartt, Donna. The Secret History

Tolstaya, Tatyana. On the Golden Porch  

Wilde, Oscar. Social Comedies

Woolf, Virginia . Mrs Dalloway and To the Lighthouse

b. Critical Material

Berry, Helen. 2001. Rethinking Politeness in Eighteenth-century : Moll King’s Coffee House and the Significance of ‘flash talk’. Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6/11, 65-81.

Calvo, Clara. 1992. Pronouns of Address and Social Negotiation in As you like it. Language and Literature, 1: 5–27.

Dentith, Simon. 1995. Bakhtinian Thought. An Introductory Reader. London : Routledge.

Duff, David (ed). 2000. Modern Genre Theory. London : Longman.

Eco, Umberto. 1984. The Role of the Reader. Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Fitzmaurice, Susan. 1998. The Commerce of Language in the Pursuit of Politeness in Eighteenth-century . English Studies, 79/4, 309-328.

Gloversmith, Frank (ed.) The Theory of Reading . : The Harverster Press. 

Halliday, Michael, Alexander, Kirkwood . 1989. Spoken and Written Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Herman, Vimala. 1995. Dramatic Discourse. Dialogue as Interaction in Plays. London : Routledge.

Hoey, Michael. 2001. Textual Interaction. An Introduction to Written Discourse Analysis. London : Routledge.

Holmes, Janet. 1995. Women, Men and Politeness. New York : Longman.

Holquist, Michael. 1990. Dialogism. Bakhtin and his World. London : Longman.

Hughes, Geoffrey. 1998. Swearing: A Social History of Foul Language, Oaths and Profanity in English. London : Penguin Books.

Hutchby, Ian and Wooffitt, Robin. 2008. Conversation Analysis. Cambridge : Polity Press.

Jucker, Andreas H. And Taavitsainen, Irma. 2008. Speech Acts in the History of English. Amsterdam : John Benjamins.

Kopytko, Roman. 1995. Linguistic Politeness Strategies in Shakespeare’s Plays. In: Jucker, Andreas H. (ed.) Historical Pragmatics. Pragmatic Developments in the History of English. Amsterdam & Philadelphia : John Benjamins, 515-540.

Langford, Paul. 2002. The Uses of Eighteenth-century Politeness. Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 12, 311-331.

Magnusson, Lynne A. 1992. The Rhetoric of Politeness and "Henry VIII." Shakespeare Quarterly 43( 4): 391-409

Sell, Roger D. 2005. Literary Texts and Diachronic Aspects of Politeness. In: Watts , Richard & Ide, Sachiko & Ehlich, Konrad (eds.) Politeness in Language. Berlin & New York : Mouton de Gruyter, 109-130.

Sell, Roger. 1985. Tellability and Politeness in “The Miller’s Tale”: First Steps in Literary Pragmatics. English Studies, 66, 496–512.

Seung, T.K. 1982. Semiotics and Thematics in Hermenuetics. New York: Columbia University Press

Stein, Dieter. 2003. Pronominal Usage in Shakespeare: Between Sociolinguistics and Conversational Analysis. In: Taavitsainen, Irma & Jucker, Andreas (eds.) Diachronic Perspectives on Address Term Systems. Amsterdam & Philadelphia : John Benjamins, 251-307.

Taavitsainen, Irma & Jucker, Andreas H. 2008. “Methinks you seem more beautiful than ever”: Compliments and Gender in the History of English. In: Jucker, Andreas H. & Taavitsainen, Irma (eds.), Speech Acts in the History of English. Amsterdam & Philadelphia : John Benjamins, 195-228.

Thomas, Jenny. 1995. Meaning in Interaction: An Introduction to Pragmatics. New York : Longman.

Vice, Sue. 1997. Introducing Bakhtin. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Journals:

Journal of Historical Pragmatics