Shakespeare and Social Dialogue: Dramatic Language and Elizabethan Letters

ISBN-13: 9780521641913 / Angielski / Twarda / 1999 / 232 str.

Ontario) Lynne Magnusson (Queen's University

Opis

Shakespeare and Social Dialogue develops a systematic analysis of the rhetoric of social exchange in early modern England. Magnusson brings together writings, particularly letters, from the Elizabethan period that are normally read as historical documents and compares them with Shakespeare's play texts and sonnets. Using techniques from discourse analysis and linguistic pragmatics, especially "politeness theory," she argues that Shakespeare's language is rooted in the everyday language of Elizabethan culture. The author's readings bridge the gap between new historicism and linguistic criticism.

Recenzje

"...splendid book that offers both a compelling method of close reading and a number of careful, discriminating analyses of Renaissance English texts." Joutnal of English and Germanic Philology

Spis treści

Acknowledgements; Introduction; Part I. The Rhetoric of Politeness: 1. Politeness and dramatic character in Henry VIII; 2. 'Power to hurt': language and service in Sidney household letters and Shakespeare's sonnets; Part II. Eloquent Relations in Letters: 3. Scripting social relations in Erasmus and Day; 4. Reading courtly and administrative letters; 5. Linguistic stratification, merchant discourse, and social change; Part III. A Prosaics of Conversation: 6. The pragmatics of repair in King Lear and Much Ado About Nothing; 7. 'Voice potential': language and symbolic capital in Othello; Notes; Bibliography; Index.