Topic 13 - Shared knowledge and absurdist drama (Session B) > Topic Summary

Topic Summary

In this topic we have learned about how we bring along shared knowledge about situations, people and so on to texts in the form of 'pre-packaged' schemata.

We have also seen how writers can use the schematic knowledge we and they share to create meanings and effects in texts including absurdist effects when the assumptions of characters are markedly at odds with our own assumptions.

We have also seen that individual utterances and sentences can involve specific assumptions in the form of presuppositions, and that these can also be manipulated to create a range of effects, including absurdity.

When assumptions in texts clash with the assumptions we hold, the deviation involved creates the effect of foregrounding and as this topic is the final topic on the course, we can use this fact to help us to notice something very important about the different aspects of analysis we have noticed in the course:

• WHEN WE HAVE INTRODUCED PARTICULAR KINDS OF ANALYSIS (E.G. TURN-TAKING WHEN LOOKING AT DRAMA) WE HAVE CHOSEN THE GENRE WHICH THE MODE OF ANALYSIS WORKS ON BEST OF ALL

• BUT IT IS IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER THAT ALL THE FORMS OF ANALYSIS WILL BE APPLICABLE TO A PARTICULAR TEXT TO SOME DEGREE

• FOR EXAMPLE PROSE AND DRAMA TEXTS CAN MAKE CREATIVE USE OF SEMANTIC AND GRAPHOLOGICAL DEVIATION

• POETRY AND DRAMA TEXTS CAN ALSO USE VIEWPOINT MANIPULATION CREATIVELY

• AND POETRY AND PROSE TEXTS CAN MAKE CREATIVE USE OF TURN-TAKING AND INFERENTIAL EFFECTS.

SO THE MOTTO FOR THE COURSE IS:

IN STYLISTIC ANALYSIS EVERYTHING YOU HAVE LEARNED IS POTENTIALLY USEFUL WHEN ANALYSING ANY TEXT.

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