The Figgerin' of Aunt Wilma: A Literary Analysis of the Narration

Authors

Poonyasika A. Abhayakul

Publication Date

2007-04-01

Abstract

This paper presents a literary discourse analysis of a short story by an American humorist following Austin's Speech Act Theory as refined by John R. Searle and further elaborated by Brown and Levinson (1999). The text was found to be organized in the typical five-point (abstract, orientation, complicating action, evaluation, and resolution) format expounded by Labov (1972) and Traugott and Pratt (1980). The role of characters in the text was also analyzed and discussed using Fillmore's (1968) Case Grammar as further developed by Grimshaw (1990), among others. The narrator's point of view in this text was found to surreptitiously elicit reader empathy with Mr. Hance (one character) through establishing a shared world and introducing new unshared experiences from this character's point of view. A switch of narrator alliance could be expected to result in matching changes in reader perceptions of characters in the story. Narratives such as this might be usefully utilized to improve student motivation and confidence in both creating and making sense of narratives and in learning English syntax and grammar within rich and meaningful contexts.

DOI

10.58837/CHULA.PASAA.40.1.4

First Page

83

Last Page

97

Recommended Citation

Abhayakul, Poonyasika A. (2007) "The Figgerin' of Aunt Wilma: A Literary Analysis of the Narration," PASAA: Vol. 40: Iss. 1, Article 5.
DOI: 10.58837/CHULA.PASAA.40.1.4
Available at: https://digital.car.chula.ac.th/pasaa/vol40/iss1/5