A Pragmastylistic Study Of The Multi-Layered Impoliteness In Fictional Discourse

Politeness has been a heated topic within pragmatics and discourse studies. However, impoliteness, the opposite of politeness, has just begun to draw scholars’ attention in recent years. Most of the researches on impoliteness investigate typical examples in oral discourse and transcriptions of audio-visual data. Little attention has been paid to the impolite utterances in written texts and literary texts. The existing studies on impoliteness in literary discourse stay merely at the surface level of dialogues between characters. Seldom do they probe on the impoliteness at the deeper level of exchanges between the author and the reader. Therefore, to enrich the studies of impoliteness, the study attempts to define impoliteness in fictional discourse and construct a multi-layered impoliteness model of fictional discourse based on the framework of Bousfield’s (2008) impoliteness theory and the multi-layered structure of fictional text proposed by Stockwell (2002). The study takes Jane Eyre as linguistic data, and endeavors to elaborate on stylistic effects of the realizations of impoliteness in different layers of the novel.The impolite utterances in fictional discourse can be divided into implied author-to-reader, narrator-to-narratee and character-to-character layers. The study shows that the impoliteness sub-strategies put forward by Bousfield can be realized in all layers of fictional discourse, but have certain variations in the implied author-to-reader and narrator-to-narratee layers. This study aims to modify the impoliteness realizations in these layers and reveal their stylistic effects. The analysis of the impoliteness in Jane Eyre finds out that:(1) the constructed multi-layered impoliteness model is workable in the stylistic analysis of fictional discourse; (2) in the implied author-to-reader and narrator-to-narratee layers, the impolite utterances have the revealing function, entertaining function and the function of promoting solidarity or exclusion. Most sub-strategies have strong revealing power in characterization and theme exploration. Some sub-strategies such as quotation, the choice of narrative techniques, etc. create barrier to one’s reading, but at the same time make reading more challenging and joyful and play the role of adjusting the distance between the author and the reader; (3) Jane is inclined to adopt the sub-strategy of "threatening" in the conflicts between Mrs. Reed, which shows her rebellious spirit at a young age. In adulthood, she prefers to use "scorn" to realize impoliteness in the exchanges with Mr. Rochester. Although the degree of face-threatening of the chosen sub-strategies decreases as Jane grows up, they highlight Jane’s maturity, wisdom, bravery and rebellious spirit, and further reveal and unfold the theme of feminism.Tn conclusion, the analysis of the multi-layered impoliteness in fictional discourse has both theoretical and practical implications for future studies. It has not only enriched the stylistic study on Jane Eyre, but also provided new perspective for scholars to apply the impoliteness theory into fictional discourse analysis and literary criticism. Therefore, the study which combines pragmatics and literature echoes with the emerging trend of interdisciplinary research.