Original scientific paper

Shuttling back and forth from "The Ebony Tower"

Sonia Wild Bićanić

Abstract

How meaning evolves (in written communication) or is negotiated
(in spoken) through the complex mteraction of sender, receiver
and context is a preoccupation both of linguists and of those
concerned with literary studies. This article is an attempt to
combine the insights provided by those involved in discourse
analysis and those concerned with reception aesthetics. The
Ebony Tower by John Fowles is considered in the light of the
discourse categories: episode, sequence, turn, act. The story can
be seen to be composed of two intermeshed episodes and a short
terminal episode. The episodes vary in terms of actors, narrative
devices and illocutionary intent. They also vary in extent of
ambiguity and hence of reader involvement and aesthetic impact.
It is suggested that since both reading and writing are everyday
activities, competence in :making sense off the structuring and
transmission of meaning in speech may be one of the ways,
beneath conscious control, in which readers realize significance
in reading too.

Keywords

Hrčak ID:

121802

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/121802

Publication date:

25.11.1980.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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