Language in Literature: Style and Foregrounding (Textual Explorations) by Geoffrey Leech

Author:Geoffrey Leech [Leech, Geoffrey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781317899921
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2014-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

8.5 Applications to literature

The TEXTUAL PLANE can be illustrated by the varied meanings we can attach to the author’s sequencing of elements and to lexical repetition. The sequencing of elements in fiction often assumes chronological ordering of events in the narrative; but it can also suggest ‘psychological ordering’, that is, the order in which impressions or elements of knowledge are apprehended by some fictional observer; or it can suggest what one may call ‘rhetorical ordering’ – i.e. the order in which the author intends impressions to be registered, for maximum effect, in the mind of the reader.

In this passage from Conrad’s The Secret Agent, the psychological interpretation of sequencing seems to be dominant:

She saw there an object. That object was the gallows. She was afraid of the gallows.

(Chapter 12)

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.