Stylistics, speech acts and im/politeness theory

Bousfield, Derek ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9120-9250 (2023) Stylistics, speech acts and im/politeness theory. In: The Routledge Handbook of Stylistics: 2nd Edition. Routledge Handbooks in English Language Studies . Routledge, London and New York, pp. 121-140. ISBN 9780367567491 (hardback); 9780367568887 (ebook)

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Abstract

The study of stylistics can be an enigmatic, alluring and eclectic one. Stylistics, as originally envisaged and practiced, explored the linguistic construction of the style of writing of literary authors, ostensibly as an approach to ascertain whether it was possible to assign authorship definitively to unattributed or questionably attributed literary works. With regards to fictional characters, the style (or way) in which characters are described, and, indeed, the style (or way) in which characters themselves interact all reveal how the authors, within the cultural context in which they receive the information, are being invited to see, understand, appreciate, empathise, sympathise or antipathise with those characters, and what they literally, metaphorically or metonymically represent. The fact that what the characters say (and how they say it) has a bearing on how we view them is hardly contentious.