Abstract

The present study tries to investigate the field of pragma-stylistics in literary text in general, and fantasy novels in particular. Therefore, it tries to attest how pragmatic theories are employed stylistically to achieve the aims of the literary writers and to reflect their perceptions. The present study tries to achieve the following aims: Specifying the most dominant categories of speech acts used by characters and the narrator in the two novels to achieve some stylistic effects. Showing how the non-observance of the maxim yield effects on the two levels of interaction, and presenting the most dominant non-observed maxim in the selected fantasy novels. Clarifying the way the difference in the writing period of each novel can affect the readers pragmatically and stylistically through finding out what is the most dominant figure of speech at the character-character level as well as the narrator-reader level of interaction and whether they are employed stylistically or not. The present study is limited to two theories of pragmatics: speech act theory and Grice maxims. And the data of the analysis is limited to the children’s fantasy novels, one is written in the 1950’s, the other in 2000’s. After analysing the data, it is concluded that the most dominant SA that is used is the representative SA. Flouting the maxims yield effects on the two levels of interaction, generating conversational implicature. Finally, the difference in the writing period of each novel affect the readers pragmatically and stylistically through finding out the most dominant figure of speech, which is irony, at the character-character and the narrator-reader level of interaction.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.