Structure and meaning in literary discourse Essay

Structure and meaning in literary discourse - Essay Example (Taboada, 159) Linguistic and Literary Issue 2: Anachrony, in the form of 'flashback' or analepsis and 'flash-forward' or prolepsis, is a modern narrative technique making use of the discrepancy between the chronological order of events and the order of their presentation and "the way the revelatory analepsis is used ensures not only the structural but also the thematic unity of the narrative" in A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. (Maglavera, 131) Linguistic and Literary Issue 3: The grammatical system presents the grammatical cohesion which is divided into "the reference [incorporating anaphora and cataphora], substitution, ellipsis and conjunction types," whereas lexical cohesion is broken down into "relations of repetition, synonymity, collocation, and other semantic relationships." (Taboada, 160) Linguistic and Literary Issue 4: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens presents a compelling illustration of the use of repeated coordinating structure through the narrative techniques such as anachrony, collocation, cataphora, repetition and substitution which ultimately bring about coherence and cohesion in the literary discourse. As stated above, the novel A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens presents one of the most effective illu... f all, the temporal relationships between narrative and story or the relations of temporal ordering, through the use of revelatory analepsis, ensure structural as well as thematic unity of the narrative. It is most revealing to realise that "in A Tale of Two Cities most analepses refer to the thick mystery surrounding Dr. Manette's past life, the years of his imprisonment in France and the reasons for this." (Maglavera, 121) To comprehend the expert use of the other linguistic techniques of narration such as collocation, cataphora, repetition and substitution in the novel A Tale of Two Cities, it is important to consider the use of repeated coordinating structure of the novel. The introductory passage of the novel, at its best, reveals this repeated coordinating structure. Significantly, the various categories of coordinating structure in the introductory sentences of the novel "restate previously stated ideas in a new way." (Donnelly and Donnelly, 82) Here, the subordinating sentenc es expand or analyse the various ideas which were already stated at a lower level. Thus, the introductory sentences of the novel are meaningfully connected and the concepts in the subordinating sentences are reanalysed in more detailed, more specific and less abstract language. "Such sentences," Donnelly and Donnelly observe, "explain, define, or give examples of the ideas already mentioned at a higher level and treated in a more general manner."(Donnelly and Donnelly, 82) In short, the stylistic techniques such as anachrony, collocation, cataphora, repetition and substitution offer great coherence and cohesion in the narrative strategy of the novel A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. Works Cited Donnelly, Colleen and Colleen Elaine Donnelly. Linguistics for Writers. SUNY Press.