A PRAGMA-STYLISTIC STUDY OF REPENTANCE IN SELECTED NOVELS BY GRAHAM GREENE
زينب اياد علي شعلان, صالح مهدي عداي المعموري
كلية التربية للعلوم الإنسانية-جامعة بابل · العراق
This study is an attempt to pragma-stylistically investigate the process of repentance in Graham Greene’s novels The Power and the Glory, The Heart of the Matter, and The End of the Affair. It aims at finding out the pragma-stylistic structure of repentance, with the pragma-stylistic strategies employed in the stages of the repentance process, and to show the way pragmatic strategies of repentance are employed stylistically in literary discourse in general and novels in particular. In order to actualize the aims of this study, it is hypothesized that repentance is pragma-stylistically structured by speech act, deixis, presupposition, conversational implicature, and pragma-stylistic devices, distributed over three stages, viz. the introduction stage, the acknowledging stage, and the resolving stage. The context affects the repentance process and the different pragma-stylistic strategies. All of the major strategies in the pragma-stylistic structure of repentance are achieved through various sub-strategies, some of which are dominantly employed. Besides, the resolving stage is the most common stage to occur in the repentance process. The strategies are stylistically employed with the aim of presenting stylistic effects through implicating pragma-stylistic devices, hence creating complex pragma-stylistic strategies, and having artistic structures. Accordingly, there are several functions of repentance, to which the different pragma-stylistic strategies in the repentance process contribute. The present study analyses the repentance situations in the three novels under investigation both qualitatively and quantitatively, according to a model proposed and developed by the present study. The findings of the study verify its hypotheses. The study principally finds out that the repentance process incorporates various pragma-stylistic strategies occurring throughout the introduction, acknowledging, and resolving stages. Moreover, these strategies are stylistically used by the characters in order to produce stylistic effects which serve the intended message of the writer. The study falls into five chapters. Chapter One introduces the problem, aims, hypotheses, procedures, limits, and value of the study. Chapter Two presents a theoretical background of pragmatics, stylistics, and pragma-stylistics, together with their effect on literary discourse in general and novels in particular. Chapter Three is devoted to positing a theoretical framework on repentance. Chapter Four presents a description of the data of the work and a practical analysis of repentance in the selected novels, in addition to discussing results of the analysis. Chapter Five sums up the most important conclusions arrived at as well as recommendations and suggestions for further studies.