Dramatic Discourse: Dialogue as Interaction in Plays

In Dramatic Discourse, Vimala Herman argues that drama should be of particular interest to linguists, because of its form and dialogue, but also because its subsequent translation into performance is fertile ground for the current theories emphasizing performativity and performance in language. Each chapter contains a theoretical section in which major concepts of each framework are explained. The relevance of these frameworks to dramatic discourse are analyzed using textual examples from Shakespeare, Beckett, Osborne, and others. Herman draws on ethnomethodology, conversation analysis, discourse analysis and sociolinguistics to explore dramatic issues such as time in language, power and gender. Dramatic Discourse offers new theoretical approaches which contribute to a more complete understanding of dramatic dialogue.

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