Direct speech turns and narrative clues in literary prose: Gabriel G. Márquez’s short story {Buen viaje, senor presidente} and its Polish translation Cover Image

Direct speech turns and narrative clues in literary prose: Gabriel G. Márquez’s short story {Buen viaje, senor presidente} and its Polish translation
Direct speech turns and narrative clues in literary prose: Gabriel G. Márquez’s short story {Buen viaje, senor presidente} and its Polish translation

Author(s): Paulina Nalewajko, Jadwiga Linde-Usiekniewicz
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Wydział Polonistyki Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: G.G. Márquez; direct speech framing expressions; addressee; interpersonal situation; focalization; G.G. Márquez; dialog; komentarz narracyjny; adresat; sytuacja międzyosobowa; fokalizacja

Summary/Abstract: Gabriel García Márquez’s prose has been the topic of numerous theoretical and critical studies. The majority of them, however, have addressed such issues as magical realism or the relation between myth and history. Much less attention has been paid to the formal features of his works. The present article constitutes an attempt to apply a different approach. We analyze the formal, i.e. syntactic, features of direct speech framing expressions in {Buen viaje, señor presidente} as our starting point. Such a syntactic analysis leads to an in-depth pragmatic reading of the dialogic turns, which then reveal their hidden meaning. The dialogic turns and framing expressions together provide an insight into the dynamics of the interpersonal situation portrayed in the story. Further application of the same close-reading technique to the Polish translation of the story proves that syntactic and lexical departures from the source text observed in the translated text lead to a different reading of both the dialogic turns and the interpersonal situation. Hence, our analysis offers evidence to support the importance of the formal aspects of direct speech framing turns in narratives. We also show that by applying linguistic-oriented close reading techniques to literary texts, we may reveal hitherto undisclosed layers of meaning, even in canonical texts of extensively studied authors.

  • Issue Year: 2014
  • Issue No: 4 (7)
  • Page Range: 109-126
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: English