Dr. Kouider Merbah,
University of Mustapha Stambouli, Mascara, Algeria
This paper investigates the role of pragmatics and the importance of speech act theory in literary analysis, focusing on the speech acts of convincing/advising in persuasive discourse in Henry James’s The Lesson of the Master (1888). The paper consists of four sections. The first section introduces the contribution of pragmatics to literature, emphasizing its role in understanding literary texts. The second section discusses the importance of speech act theory in literary analysis, providing a theoretical framework for the study. The third section explores the concepts of convincing and advising as speech act verbs, examining their functions in persuasive discourse. The core of the study, presented in the fourth section, offers a detailed analysis of the speech acts of convincing and advising in the text. The study concludes by confirming the strong link between pragmatics and literature, highlighting the role of speech act theory in literary analysis, and suggesting that such an approach can reveal deeper insights into the text’s rhetorical strategies and ideological underpinnings.
Keywords: Pragmatics, Speech Act Theory, Persuasive Discourse, Literary Analysis, The Lesson of the Master
The above abstract is a part of the article which was accepted at The 10th International Conference on Languages, Linguistics, Translation and Literature (WWW.TLLL.IR), 1-2 February 2025, Ahwaz.
