Stylistics routledge English Language Introductions

Activity
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MRS MARTIN: Yes! Leaning forward!
MR MARTIN:
MRS SMITH:
冧
It can’t be true!
MR SMITH:
MRS MARTIN: Yes! Leaning forward he was! I went right up to him to see what he
was doing . . .
MR MARTIN:
MRS SMITH:
冧
What ? What?
MR SMITH:
MRS MARTIN: His shoelaces had come undone and he was tying them up!
MR MARTIN:
MRS SMITH:
冧
Fantastic!
MR SMITH:
MR SMITH: If I’d heard that from anyone else, I’d never have believed it.
(Ionesco 1963 [1958]: 98–9)
Now work through the following tasks which relate to the delivery, content and recep-
tion of Mrs Martin’s ‘shoelaces’ story.
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What elements of the six-part Labovian model can you identify in Mrs Martin’s
story?
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Labov notes that it is understood among interactants that a narrative of personal
experience must have a central reportable event. What is the central reportable
event of Mrs Martin’s story?
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To what extent does the category of Evaluation feature in Mrs Martin’s story?
In other words, what tactics does she use to ward off the ‘so what’ question?
How many (and what sort of ) Evaluation devices can you identify?
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With reference to the reaction her story draws from her interlocutors, is Mrs
Martin’s story successful 
within
the interactive world of the play? That is, does
it work at the 
diegetic
(see A7) level?
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Going on your own reactions to it, to what extent is Mrs Martin’s story successful
outside
the world of the play? In other words, does it work at the 
extradiegetic
level?
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Following from the previous point, would you expect an audience (or readers
of the play) to react in the same way as Mrs Martin’s co-conversationalists to
the story? How have the requirements for successful story-telling in the real world
been transformed in the world of the absurd? Accepting that you may not have
found it especially funny, can this piece of dialogue’s potential for humour be
explained by reference to this transformation?
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Ionesco’s professed aim in this play is to break down the cliché-ridden and
formulaic ‘social language’ that typifies polite bourgeois society (Ionesco 1964).
How successful is this sort of dialogue in accomplishing this aim?
Drama dialogue is explored in depth across thread 9, where a range of stylistic issues
and interests are covered. In the next three units the attention shifts away from the
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E X P L O R A T I O N
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