Structure and meaning in literary discourse Essay - 1

Structure and meaning in literary discourse - Essay Example As Robert E. Longacre declares, "a discourse revolution of some sort is shaping up in response to the demand for context and for greater explanatory power." (Longacre, 1) It is also relatable here that the current use of the term 'discourse' incorporates two areas of linguistic concern such as the analysis of dialogue and the analysis of monologue. Significantly, a workable discourse incorporates prominence and cohesion or coherence. In cohesion as well as coherence two basic components are included and they are surface structure cohesive devices and semantic and lexical coherence. The pre-eminence of a plot as a coherence device in a narrative has been generally recognised. Plot may be comprehended as notional structure of narrative discourse and there is correspondence between notional structural features and the surface structure. Embedded discourse has been a significant tool used in the plot and peak pf a literary piece in order to encode the inciting moments and developing conf licts in the notional structure as surface structure episodes. Charles Dickens' celebrated novel A Tale of two Cities has significantly several examples of embedded discourses and the novel marks the climax as well as the denigration as peak in its surface structure. ... both the climax and the denouncement as peak and peak' in its surface structure." (Longacre, 38-39) Therefore, there are several examples of embedded discourses in A Tale of two Cities and they relate to each other and integrate into the entire novel. The marking of surface structure peak has great implication in the literary discourse and it is important to recognise peak when embedded discourse is existent. There are several methods of embedded discourse like rhetoric underlining, concentration of participants, heightened vividness, change of pace etc. In rhetorical underlining, the narrator uses extra words when he wishes to keep the important pint of the story. Parallelism, paraphrase, and tautologies are some of the tools employed. The crowded stage has been recognised as the feature of peak. The notional structure climax or peak can be evidently found out in the novel A Tale of two Cities in the second trial of Charles Darnay. Heightened vividness is a major method which results from a nominal-verbal balance by way of tense shift. In the novel A Tale of two Cities one clearly finds a tense shift in one of the most important moments of the story. Thus, there is a tense shift to present tense in the novel following the trial a nd arrest of Sidney Carton instead of Charles Darney. The shift of the tense has importance in the story's development. The tense shift "adds vividness and excitement andmarks a peak' which encodes part of the notional structure denouncement of the story." (Longacre 40-1) Therefore, one may distinguish peak or climax from peak' or denouncement in the surface structure of the novel A Tale of two Cities. Change of pace is another method used by the literary discourse and its main devices are difference in the constructions and difference in