B.
Suzie closed her eyes, knowing that she should make the effort to go upstairs
and go to bed, but reluctant to move. When she heard Carlos’ deep voice, it
was obvious he was standing very near to her. Her eyes flickered open to see
him leaning over her, his face close to hers [. . .]
And then his mouth was on hers, taking her by surprise and stopping her
breath. His arms locked around her, pulling her close. Like a knife, a sudden
panic cut through Suzie’s body as her brain screamed out the message that
this was wrong – wrong! She struggled futilely against him, trying desperately
to push him away, knowing full well that if she succumbed she would be lost
and knowing also that she was fighting against herself. Even as her common
sense told her this was pointless and wrong, her lips parted under his as if by
a will of their own . . .
(
Escape to Love
by Claudia Jameson; cited in Nash 1990: 141)
C.
There lay the Count, but looking as if his youth had been half-renewed, for
the whole hair and moustache were changed to dark iron-grey;
the cheeks
were fuller, and the white skin seemed ruby-red underneath; the mouth was
redder than ever, for on the
lips were gouts of fresh blood, which trickled
from the corners of the mouth and ran over the chin and neck. Even
the deep, burning eyes seemed
set amongst swollen flesh, for the lids and
pouches underneath were bloated. It seemed as if the whole, awful creature
were simply gorged with blood; he lay like a filthy leech, exhausted with his
repletion.
(Stoker 1998 [1897]: 51)
First of all, work through the two passages following this set of general exercises:
(a) Analyse the transitivity patterns in the two extracts, looking closely at:
(i) The types of
processes
that are present.
(Specify whether they are material, mental, behavioural and so on (see A6))
(ii) The types of
participants
associated with each of the processes.
(Identify participant roles like Actor, Goal, Sensor and so on (A6))
(iii) Any special
types
of participant role.
(See for example
if you can distinguish
meronymic
agency from
holonymic
agency (see B6))
(b) What does your analysis of transitivity reveal about the key stylistic characteris-
tics of each of the two genres of writing?
Having undertaken an analysis of the broader patterns, consider now the following
issues and sub-activities which are directed more specifically to each of the passages:
Passage B
:
(a)
A generally useful framing question for the analysis of transitivity is to
ask:
who or what does what to whom or what?
(and see further D6). The
question provides useful orientation for the Mills and Boon passage, where
11
111
11
111
T R A N S I T I V I T Y , C H A R A C T E R I S A T I O N A N D L I T E R A R Y G E N R E
121
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: