| The Waste Land is among the most influential poems written in English in the twentieth century. Since its publication in 1922, the formidable theme and style have provoked literary critics into arguing over the coherence of the poem. The deliberate refusal of connections between scenes and ceaselessly shifting voices within the poem render it suitable to be analyzed from the perspective of interpersonal coherence, a theory based on systemic functional grammar.The issue of text coherence has long been a heated topic in systemic functional linguistics. Interpersonal coherence is the combination between resources in interpersonal metafunction and textual metafunction. The interpersonal coherence model based on systemic functional grammar consists of two categories:1) interpersonal cohesion comprising mood cohesion and modality cohesion 2) register consistency in Tenor and Mode. Inspired by the development in theory and application of interpersonal coherence, the thesis investigates how voices operates and relates to each other in The Waste Land with the guidance of interpersonal coherence model and offers an original perspective to the theme of this enigmatic poem.After line-by-line analysis of the first two sections of the poem, it is clear that the interpersonal coherence in The Waste Land is generally arranged in Tenor and Mode with interpersonal cohesive devices realizing the relationships among voices. Interpersonal coherence is established within and across stanzas and sections. A dwindling didactic force of speakers, diversification of voices and spaces, and a tendency of past aligning with present are the major global interpersonal coherence found in first three sections of the poem. The emergence of two-party-present interactions and a discussion in the simple future tense in "A Game of Chess" are prominent incoherence.A major interpersonal incoherence occurs at the end of "The Fire Sermon", annihilating all voices and scenes. In "What the Thunder Said" a single voice unifying nearly all the voices that have appeared in previous sections operates in a barren space dominated by negative polarity and then collapses into fragmented voices.From the perspective of interpersonal coherence, The Waste Land is a seesaw battle between voices of diversification and a voice of unification. The author depicts how diversification may lead to chaos and annihilation and how unification leads to abstract and infertility. With the thunder’s words the author suggests a lesson learned from the death and resurrection. The incoherence in "A Game of Chess" also suggests that communication may lead to future. |
