Poetic Effects

A relevance theory perspective

Adrian Pilkington | Royal Holloway University of London

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027250902 (Eur) | EUR 105.00

ISBN 9781556199226 (USA) | USD 158.00

Paperback – Available

ISBN 9789027250919 (Eur) | EUR 38.00

ISBN 9781556199233 (USA) | USD 57.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027298980 | EUR 105.00/38.00*
| USD 158.00/57.00*

Poetic Effects: A Relevance Theory Perspective offers a pragmatic account of the effects achieved by the poetic use of rhetorical tropes and schemes. It contributes to the pragmatics of poetic style by developing work on stylistic effects in relevance theory. It also contributes to literary studies by proposing a new theoretical account of literariness in terms of mental representations and mental processes.
The book attempts to define literariness in terms of text-internal linguistic properties, cultural codes or special purpose reading strategies, as well as suggestions that the notion of literariness should be dissolved or rejected. It challenges the accounts of language and verbal communication that underpin such positions and outlines the theory of verbal communication developed within relevance theory that supports an explanatory account of poetic effects and a new account of literariness. This is followed by a broader discussion of philosophical and psychological issues having a bearing on the question of what is expressed non-propositionally in literary communication. The discussion of emotion, qualitative experience and, more specifically, aesthetic experience provides a fuller characterisation of poetic effects and ‘poetic thought’.

[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 75] 2000. xiv, 214 pp.

Publishing status:

https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.75

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements | p. ix

Introduction | p. xi

1. Literary studies and literary theory | p. 1

2. Theories of literariness, language and communication in literary studies | p. 15

3. Pragmatic Theory | p. 51

4. Metaphor | p. 85

5. Schemes and verse effects | p. 123

6. Emotion, attitude and sentimentality | p. 141

7. Varieties of affective experience | p. 163

8. Conclusion | p. 189

Index of Names | p. 203

Index of Subjects | p. 207

“This book draws upon several years' experience in the theoretical grounding of literary comprehension and its subtle reader-oriented effects. Not only does the book provide a convincing picture of what really goes on in the reader's mind when interpreting literary texts, but also addresses the difficult issue of how (subtler) nonpropositional feelings and emotions are felt by the reader. This scientific insight goes well beyond former purely intuitive views of literature and beyond sterile debates on where the 'intentio' of literary textis supposed to lie. To ignore the reader's mind in literary analysis is to miss the chance to coherent view of literature as text to be consumed cognitively.”

Francisco Yus, University of Alicante in Journal of Pragmatics 34 (2002)

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