从会话分析的角度看《愤怒的回顾》中的人物关系与性格

Conversation Analysis and Characterization in John Osborne's Look Back in Anger

本文旨在通过分析戏剧文本的语言结构,揭示戏剧中人物关系和人物性格是如何得到展示的。所选取的文本是John Osborne的剧本《愤怒的回顾》中开场的一段对话。在分析中运用会话分析中的话轮交替模式,并借鉴语用学和社会语言学解释言语行为的论述,对戏剧人物关系和性格进行阐释。本文结论是,戏剧意义的产生不仅取决于剧中人的说话内容,还取决于由会话交替机制所决定的对话交流结构,在戏剧文体学中运用话语分析模式能够帮助我们说明观众与读者解读戏剧人物的途径,对戏剧人物的表现作出有依据的阐释,从而使戏剧批评,尤其是戏剧人物评论,能够建立在相对客观和可复制的分析方法之上。

This paper undertakes an examination of the interactive structure of dramatic dialogue with the help of findings in Conversation Analysis, especially in the study of turn-taking mechanism. The analysis aims to show how a linguistic approach to dramatic dialogue with the focus on interactive structures can help understand characterization in drama. In order to uncover the dynamics behind the conversational structures, findings in pragmatics and sociolinguistics are also referred to in the analysis. It is argued that dramatic dialogue is a turn-by-turn construction; by looking at how a dramatist allocates turns to the characters in a play, we can account for certain dramatic effects created by the text and explain how a character is presented not only by what he says but also by how it is said in relation to other characters. An analysis of the turn-taking mechanism as is found in the opening scene of John Osborne抯 Look Back in Anger is presented in this paper to illustrate the above. Specific aspects of turn-taking examined in this paper include turn allocation, turn distribution and turn length, and turn sequencing. Also brought under focus is the pragmatic significance of questions from one of the characters in the play. Further analysis of the patterns of turn-taking uncovered in this study is carried out to reveal character relationship in terms of dominance and balance and sympathy and alienation. Finally, in the conclusion, a summary account of the personalities of the characters is given on the basis of their conversational behaviour. The present study shows that the interactive structure of dialogue is at the center of character creation in drama, and by paying closer attention to the functions and workings of the components of structure, such as turn-taking, we can explain how dramatic character is presented and how interpretation of character is achieved. It is hoped that this approach may not only help to strengthen the bond between linguistics and dramatic studies and point to a more linguistically informed, text based criticism of drama, but also contribute to the study of characterization, an area of drama criticism that has not been given enough attention in recent years.