Showing papers by "University of Luxembourg published in 1982"

Frame Construction and Frame Accommodation in a Gricean Analysis of Narrative

Abstract: It has been claimed by literary theorists, for instance by Dolezel (1979: 524 — 6), that these maxims characterize a certain type of rational conversation, but cannot be extended to the analysis of literary works. Such a view goes back to the relative failure of some feeble attempts to Interpret literature in terms of these maxims, the best known of which is Pratt (1977). Pratt's System, however, is far too simplistic in its Suggestion that the maxims apply to literary discourse in the same straightforward way in which they do to conversation. In this paper, I argue that the Gricean maxims contribute to our understanding of the 'ideological' background of narratives, and that they make their contribution on different levels, in a more complex and indirect way than in ordinary conversation, thus reflecting the greater complexity of literary discourse.