The Pragmatic Analysis Of Strange Interlude From The Perspectives Of Cooperative Principle And Politeness Principle

Eugene O’Neill is renowned as the founder of American drama. One of those plays, Strange Interlude has won him Pulitzer Prize. This nine-act play is set in the post-WWI America, it traces the protagonist Nina’s life from age twenty to a very early dotage at forty-five. It tells a story of a woman who defines herself wholly in terms of men in her life. Strange Interlude has been alive for more than a century.Many researchers and critics have done their bit to interpret this masterpiece from a variety of angles, such as Freudian psychoanalysis, Feminism, Modernism,Symbolism, etc. while little study from the conversational implicature and politeness principle. In pragmatics, co-operative principle is closely related to conversational implicature, which includes four basic maxims: Quantity Maxim, Quality Maxim,Relation Maxim and Manner Maxim. Usually one may intentionally violate one or more maxims: for instance, both understatement and overstatement violate the Quantity Maxim; telling hyperbole and lies violate the Quality Maxim; giving associated clues and giving hints have the Relation Maxim violated; being obscure as well as failure to be brief or concise has the Manner Maxim violated. Conversational Implicature thus results from these violations. Politeness Principle can explain the reason why people violate the Cooperative Principle in their interaction, which rescues and complements the Cooperative Principle.This thesis analyzes the enriched conversational implicatures from Cooperative Principle and the Politeness Principle by taking typical dialogues in the drama Strange Interlude. It explains why characters in the drama violate the cooperative principle.Besides, it analyzes the face threaten acts and how characters adopt politeness strategies.Therefore, through the pragmatic analysis of Strange Interlude, this thesis in one way reaffirms and enriches the conventional criticism of this play, while in another it clarifies the validity of taking pragmatic theory into literature criticism. What is more,readers can have a better understanding of character, character relationship, dramaplot development, drama conflict and the nature of drama in a different and original aspect.