A Literary-Pragmatic Analysis Of Irony In Sense And Sensibility

Literary Pragmatics, both literary and pragmatic, explores the sociocultural affiliation of author and reader from the perspective of pragmatics. The theoretical premise of Literary Pragmatics presupposes that reading literary work is a pragmatic act, and the reader, writer and the potential narrator in the work are all language users. In the field of Literary Pragmatics, literature, being a concrete pragmatic act with its own felicity conditions, comprises macro speech acts and micro speech acts. The former are carried out by the author communicating with his or her readers through the work, while the latter refer to the dialogues between the characters in the novel, and they are mutually dependent and related, reflecting the social and psychological reality. Literary Pragmatics is mainly concerned with the dialectical process of generating the social meaning of literary works, i.e. the pragmatic act of reading, reader-activated as well as author-guided, implies an open invitation to the reader to join the author in the co-creation of the story, by filling in the holes that the literary text leaves open.The presupposition of Literary Pragmatics Theory sets the Speech Act Theory at the center of the pragmatic study on literary works. The three kinds of speech acts, i.e. the locutionary act, the illocutionary act, and the perlocutionary act and their felicity conditions proposed by John Austin and the later development by John Searle show that there exists a close and intrinsic relationship between irony and the Speech Act Theory.Jane Austen is a great satirist, and irony, universally taken as the most remarkable characteristic of her works, is the pivotal factor contributing to her enduring and ever-increasing reputation amidst the readers and the circle of literary criticism. Sense and Sensibility, the first novel and masterpiece by Jane Austen, achieved immediate success, and met with great applause from the readers and the critical circle because of her witty ironic humor and infatuating plot design. The Austen criticism concerning irony has a long history; however, very few are conducted from the perspective of Literary Pragmatics. The thesis draws on the methodology of Speech Act Theory—a core theory in Literary Pragmatics, to explore by means of sufficient exemplification and positive research the various ironic speech acts in Sense and Sensibility, aiming to illustrate the function of irony in exhibiting the linguistic enchantment, shaping typical characters, giving prominence to themes, and creating unique literary style.