Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?: A Pragmastylistic Study

Edward Albee is one of important American absurdist playwrights in 1960 s. He leads a new trend in American plays, and makes it flourish in the art of literature. He specializes in describing absurdist theme and breaks the traditional impression on absurdism. Vulgarity, humor and absurdity are prominent features of his plays. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a masterpiece among his plays, which assembles his typical absurd elements. The play discusses a distorted American dream, in which people suffer the pains and bitterness along with pursuing the success of fame and wealth. People rely on fantasy to fill up their empty souls to escape from the cruel reality. They become extremely devious in their efforts to achieve their hearts’ desire. As the four characters in the play, they can not make a normal conversation with each other, and attempt to seek their sense of existence in the society.The thesis tries to analyze the conversations of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?from the perspective of Pragmastylistics. In the researches of the play, they seldom apply the approach to make an analysis of it. The thesis uses Conversation Analysis and the Cooperative Principle to study the play. Using Conversation Analysis can help us understand the interpersonal relationships and personalities of the characters, while the violation of the Cooperative Principle can explore the dramatic effects and the theme of the play. In the chapter of applying Conversation Analysis, the thesis analyses it from the aspects of turn-taking, turn length, turn types and so on. It reveals the power relationship between Martha and George, George and Nick, and Martha and Nick. The vivid personalities and conflicts are exposed. The misplaced female identity makes Martha manipulate the development of the topics and the conversations. Nick and George are the victims of her power, but George seizes his manhood back in the end. In the chapter of analyzing the phenomenon of breaking the Cooperative Principle, we can appreciate the dramatic effects, such as absurdity, humor, and satire, and expose the profound theme of the play from the four aspects of the violation of the Quality Maxim,the Quantity Maxim, the Relation Maxim and the Manner Maxim. Moreover, the analysis of the play helps us understand the criticism to the collapsed American societyand describes the extreme and absurd performance when people face the truth. Thus, we appreciate the conversational implicatures to expose the significant theme and interpersonal relationships of the play.Conversation in the plays not only promotes the development of plot, but shapes the distinctive personalities of characters and reveals the complicated interpersonal relationships. The thesis analyzes the conversations of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?by means of Pragmastylistics to explore the literary value of it. The approach can provide us with an objective method to appreciate plays and help us understand them in a profound way. The new perspective can broaden and enhance our understanding characters and conflicts in the plays. Besides, it can improve the ability of our daily communication.