I am Assistant Professor in the Department of Studies in Culture at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. I specialise in literary pragmatics, in particular the pragmatic analysis of Early Modern drama and contemporary fiction. My research interests have recently focussed more strongly on historical pragmatics and stylistics. I am a review editor in Studia Anglica Posnaniensia and the Polish Ambassador of the Poetics and Linguistics Association (PALA). I published a book on power in politics in Shakespeare’s chronicle plays viewed from the perspective of sociological role-theory and linguistic politeness and impoliteness titled The Pragmatics of Early Modern Politics (Brill, 2014). Address: Poznan, Wielkopolskie, Poland
Palgrave Macmillan (Language and Linguistics Series), 2023
This book is a pragma-stylistic study of Ian McEwan’s fiction, providing a qualitative analysis o... more This book is a pragma-stylistic study of Ian McEwan’s fiction, providing a qualitative analysis of his selected novels using (im)politeness theory. (Im)politeness is investigated on two levels of analysis: the level of the plot and the story world (intradiegetic level) and the level of the communication between the implied author and implied reader in fiction (extradiegetic level). The pragmatic theory of (im)politeness serves the aim of internal characterisation and helps readers to better understand and explain the characters’ motivations and actions, based on the stylistic analysis of their speech and thoughts and point of view. More importantly, the book introduces the notion of “the impoliteness of the literary fiction” – a state of affairs where the implied author (or narrator) expresses their impolite beliefs to the reader through the text, which has face-threatening consequences for the audience, e.g. moral shock or disgust, dissociation from the protagonist, feeling hurt or ‘put out’. Extradiegetic impoliteness, one of the key characteristics of McEwan’s fiction, offers an alternative to the literary concept of “a secret communion of the author and reader” (Booth 1961), describing an ideal connection, or good rapport, between these two participants of fictional communication. This book aims to unite literary scholars and linguists in the debate on the benefits of combining pragmatics and stylistics in literary analysis, and it will be of interest to a wide audience in both fields.
Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi/Brill (Costerus New Series Online, vol. 206), 2014
Early modern kings adopted a new style of government, Realpolitik, as spelled out in Machiavelli’... more Early modern kings adopted a new style of government, Realpolitik, as spelled out in Machiavelli’s writings. Tudor monarchs, well aware of their questionable right to the throne, posed as great dissimulators, similarly to the modern prince who “must learn from the fox and the lion”. This book paints a portrait of a successful politician according to early modern standards. Kingship is no longer understood as a divinely ordained institution, but is defined as goal-oriented policy-making, relying on conscious acting and the theatrical display of power. The volume offers an intriguing discussion on kingship in pragmatic terms, as the strategic face-saving behaviour of Shakespeare’s kings. It also demonstrates how an efficient or inefficient management of the king’s political face could decide his success or failure as a monarch, and how the Renaissance world of Shakespeare’s history plays is magically combined with modern theories of communication, politeness and face. (blurb info from my Publisher)
Reasons for proposing new book in this area: This book’s aim is to meet the needs of the contemporary trends in drama, pragmatics and in Critical Discourse Analysis. Fairclough (1995) and Wodak and Meyer (2005) have recently expressed their concerns about the study of pragmatics being focused solely on conventional linguistics, studying social interactions without a further social context and thus creating a somewhat idealized, conventional image of social communication. Fairclough (1999) postulates that language is, actually, a social practice, and, as such, it should not be analyzed in isolation. Only when we approach language as a social practice do we start noticing relations of power, domination and ideology that underlie human discourse. This book treats Shakespearean history plays as a linguistic corpus at the disposal of the modern theory. Literary texts (first and second tetralogy) used in this book constitute a decent linguistic sample to which pertain all linguistic rules of everyday language (Kopytko 2004). The book also proves that a linguistic theory (im/politeness) can be successfully applied to the study and analysis of Early Modern drama. In this, it corresponds with other similar studies analyzing dramatic texts from a linguistic perspective, for example Short (1996) or Culpeper and Ravassat (2011). Moreover, pragmatics is of great help when describing the characteristics of Shakespeare’s dramatic figures. Another question that this book addresses is the problem of power and politics in Early Modern England, which is looked at from a pragmatic point of view – politics is viewed here in terms of “saving” or “losing” face. Finally, the question of kingship and its varieties is brought up in this study to set the tone and context to the discussion about Renaissance change in politics with the advent of Realpolitik in Europe. “The literary” is explained by means of “the linguistic”, and “the linguistic” needs “the literary” to widen its scope, which, additionally, contributes to this book’s interdisciplinary nature.
Journal of Historical Pragmatics 25(1): 1-32, 2024
Politeness (Brown and Gilman 1989; Rudanko 1993; Kopytko 1995) and impoliteness (Culpeper 1996, 2... more Politeness (Brown and Gilman 1989; Rudanko 1993; Kopytko 1995) and impoliteness (Culpeper 1996, 2001; Bousfield 2007) have a prominent place in the reading of Shakespearean drama and serve as a means of characterisation. In this study, I utilise (im)politeness and face theory to characterise the royal discourse in 1, 2, 3 Henry VI. The study aims to analyse the linguistic behaviour of King Henry VI to see how well his royal discourse reflects his kingship and how his linguistic inadequacy contributes to his political failures. I investigate Henry’s use of (im)politeness and facework to handle political negotiations and I evaluate his level of awareness of the “political face”, which is the king’s desire to preserve a positive public image and to save face in social interactions. I look at the examples of Henry’s inadequate linguistic behaviour and try to establish why this behaviour was inefficient in a given scene and context.
Journal of Adaptation in Film & Performance, no. 14: 11-29, 2021
The Shakespearean stage productions after 1989 reflected social, political and economic changes i... more The Shakespearean stage productions after 1989 reflected social, political and economic changes in the rapidly transforming Polish reality, which gave rise to a modern type of audience whose sensitivity was shaped by popular music, cinema, digital media and the mass culture. Contemporary Polish directors (Jan Klata, Maja Kleczewska, Grzegorz Jarzyna, Krzysztof Warlikowski) recognized that modernity and tradition can (and should) be combined onstage and that canonical texts can express new meanings in new forms. The new approach to the audience and the canon led to the development of the new aesthetics representing the ‘postdramatic theatre’. The new aesthetics gave new rights to the directors; for example, Maja Kleczewska set her Macbeth in a criminal underworld of the Polish mafia in the 1990s, imbuing her production with kitschy costumes and pop culture symbols. For the same reason, Jan Klata located his H. in the Gdansk shipyard, the birthplace of ‘Solidarity’, infusing his adaptation with the music of The Doors, Metallica and U2. In my analysis of the Polish Shakespearean stage in the post-transformational era, I offer a short overview of some key trends in dramaturgical aesthetics and the directors’ approaches to the adaptation of Shakespeare’s drama to the stage in the 1990s and 2000s. Next, I discuss in more detail the ‘postdramatic’ aesthetics of the modern Shakespeare adaptations based on the examples of two chosen artists, Maja Kleczewska and Jan Klata.
Manners, Norms and Transgressions in the History of English: Literary and Linguistic Approaches, edited by Andreas H. Jucker and Irma Taavitsainen. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 75-99, 2020
Neither literary nor linguistic investigations seem to offer a clear pragmatic description of blu... more Neither literary nor linguistic investigations seem to offer a clear pragmatic description of blunder. Blunders in social communication are popularly associated with gaffes, which are incidental offences that could have been avoided if the speaker had foreseen their offensive or perplexing consequences. It has been claimed (Wierzbicka 2003) that errors and blunders are mostly committed when speakers venture into “unsafe territory” (2003: 283), which makes it easier to make a serious mistake or to embarrass the interlocutor by not taking enough care or not thinking enough. Blunders in Early Modern literature, however, have never been pragmatically analysed even though they form a distinctive linguistic feature of some Shakespearean characters’ speech. This chapter analyses the linguistic behaviour of two comedy characters from Shakespeare’s plays, Mistress Quickly and Falstaff, with special emphasis on the effects of their blunders and how blunders affect both the speaker and the hearer. The aim of the chapter is twofold. First, I try to provide a pragmatic definition of blunder in relation to speech act theory and intentionality and explain how blunders are pragmatically different from gaffes. Next, I describe the perlocutionary effects of blunders based on the examples of Shakespeare characters’ speech and demonstrate how blunders can be employed as a means of literary characterisation.
Pragmatics of Fiction, edited by Miriam A. Locher and Andreas H. Jucker. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 425-454, 2017
The aim of this chapter is to demonstrate the potential of the linguistic notion of politeness, g... more The aim of this chapter is to demonstrate the potential of the linguistic notion of politeness, generally understood as cooperative behaviour, as a tool of literary analysis. Politeness in fiction has so far been used mainly on the intradiegetic level of literary communication as a means of characterization and plot development. Relatively few studies (Jucker 2016) point to and appreciate the role of politeness as a mediator between the narrator and the reader on the extradiegetic level of communication. The chapter provides an overview of critical studies on politeness and impoliteness based on the examples of the works of (mostly) English literature from the Early Modern period through the long eighteenth century up to contemporary times. It demonstrates the transdisciplinary capacity of politeness, since rarely are politeness studies on fiction limited solely to discussions on politeness. Politeness in fiction is analysed in a wider pragma-stylistic context along with Speech Act Theory, Gricean pragmatics, Relevance Theory, and Critical Discourse Analysis.
“Politeness … or a culturally induced sensitivity to politeness, is mankind’s patient, sleepless super-ego”. (Sell 1991: 215)
Walter Scott’s influence on A.S. Pushkin’s historical novel: Rob Roy and The Captain’s daughter
... more Walter Scott’s influence on A.S. Pushkin’s historical novel: Rob Roy and The Captain’s daughter This article analyses the influence of Sir Walter Scott’s historical fiction (Rob Roy) on the development of the historical novel in Russia in the first half of the 19th century, based on the example of Pushkin’s The Captain’s Daughter. I argue that both Scott and Pushkin had a similar approach to their national and local history and collected historical material in the same way (through archival research and by contacting local people who had witnessed the events of the Jacobite Rebellion, [1715] and the Pugachev’s Rebellion [1773-75]). A close analysis of both texts presents examples of a similar poetics of the narration, dialectal use of language and dialogue, and the use of local colour and folk elements, such as folk songs or old sayings, which serve as mottoes for particular chapters in the novels.
False or “mad” jealousy is the central theme in William Shakespeare’s Othello and The Winter’s Ta... more False or “mad” jealousy is the central theme in William Shakespeare’s Othello and The Winter’s Tale. Both Othello and Leontes, the protagonists of the plays, seem to have great difficulties distinguishing between the surface of things (or what they see) and the truth. Both can be classified as tragic figures, since they commit an error of judgment – due to a flaw in their nature (be it self-love or suspiciousness) they misjudge the situation and are easily led astray. In fact, dramatic irony, which is evidently present in the plays, can be exemplified by a pragmatic analysis of the two texts. It is interesting to observe that both characters are focused on saving face in front of others, not only to avoid criticism by the society (Leontes) but also to be able to cope with the wife’s supposed betrayal (Othello). Pragmatics helps establish the causes of the characters’ tragedy: Othello’s false jealousy is conceived by Iago’s infelicitous speech acts and develops only because Othello is unable to grasp Iago’s real intention in communication. On the other hand, Leontes in his obsession is looking for hidden meanings in things just to prove that he is right; his verbal behaviour abounds in examples of self-deceit. The aim of my paper is to define jealousy in pragmatic terms, for example: face, conversational implicature, felicity conditions.
Richard III’s courtship of Lady Anne in William Shakespeare’s King Richard III is a blend of cour... more Richard III’s courtship of Lady Anne in William Shakespeare’s King Richard III is a blend of courtly speech and sexual extravaganza. His sexual energy and power of seduction were invented by Shakespeare to enhance the theatrical effect of this figure and, at the same time, to present Richard as a tragic character. Richard’s eroticism in Act 1 Scene 2 makes him a complicated individual. Playing a seducer is one of the guises that he uses to achieve his political aims on the one hand, and, on the other, the pose of a sexually attractive lover enables him to put his masculinity to the test. Throughout the scene Richard is haunted by his deformity that, together with his villainy, makes him a stranger to the world and an enemy to his family and the court. In order to overcome his self-image of a disproportional cripple he manifests his sexuality towards Anne to boost his self-esteem and to confirm that the lady will accept him despite his obvious physical shortcomings. This article uses Georges Bataille’s (1991, 1986) theory of eroticism and erotic desire to characterize Richard as a tragic individual and to explain the reasons behind his unexpected sexual behaviour in the seduction scene.
Reinventing the Renaissance: Shakespeare and His Contemporaries in Adaptation and Performance, edited by Sarah Brown, Robert Lublin, Lyndsay McCulloch. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 92-103, 2013
“William Shakespeare is popularly supposed to have been born on 23 April 1564, or on St. George’s... more “William Shakespeare is popularly supposed to have been born on 23 April 1564, or on St. George’s Day. The date may in fact have been 21 April or 22 April, but the coincidence of the national festival is at least appropriate” (Ackroyd 2005: 3). Peter Ackroyd’s Shakespeare: The Biography (2005) combines research melted into a fictitious narrative. Ackroyd's novel does not aspire to be a serious literary biography, but neither does it read as just a pretty story. The problem of non-fictional fiction and fictional non-fiction is also one pertaining to Stephen Greenblatt's Will in the World, formally, a more or less traditional biography, yet one which reads quite often like speculative fiction. Stephen Greenblatt’s Will in the World: How Shakespeare became Shakespeare (2004) is a literary biography that aims at revealing a Shakespeare who hides himself behind the verses of his plays and who throughout his life acts as a master of disguise. Both biographers are at the same time historians, who investigate historical data and “fictionalise” facts in order to create a (new) story about Shakespeare’s life. Greenblatt-biographer sticks to historical evidence and aims at presenting Shakespeare as a historical figure. Ackroyd-novelist seems to have more freedom in interpreting history and treats Shakespeare as a fictitious character. Thus, it is interesting to compare the two biographies and discuss the freedom of the “biographers” to exploit the white spots in Shakespeare's life.
References:
Ackroyd, Peter. 2005. Shakespeare: The Biography. London: Vintage Books.
Greenblatt, Stephen. 2004. Will in the World. How Shakespeare became Shakespeare. London: Jonathan Cape.
Franssen, Paul J. C. M. 2007. “The Life and Opinions of William Shakespeare, Gentleman. Biography between Fact and Fiction”, in: Literature as History/History as Literature: Fact and Fiction in Medieval to Eighteenth-Century British Literature, ed. Sonja Fielitz, p. 63-77. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Studia Anglica Posnaniensia 47 (2-3): 147-160, 2012
Renaissance England is often discussed in the context of theatre and theatrical acting. The fact ... more Renaissance England is often discussed in the context of theatre and theatrical acting. The fact is that Renaissance monarchs, too, viewed kingship in terms of theatrical display and public performance. Such is the nature of royalty presented by King James I in Basilicon Doron. Queen Elizabeth I was playing all her life. Faced with the problem of her femininity in the world of men, as well as her ambivalent hereditary rights as a member of the Tudor dynasty, she focused on legitimizing her reign through playing different roles - she played the fearful king, the loving queen, she even played Virgin Mary. But Elizabeth emerges as the most stunning actress when she plays herself. On her summer visit to Wanstead in 1578 she took an active part in the pageant “The lady of May”, playing herself, “Good Queen Bess”, which Sir Philip Sidney depicted in his pastoral romance The lady of May. In this way, Elizabeth became her own icon. This paper provides instances of the Queen’s political role play in a historical and socio-cultural context of the time.
Zeszyty naukowe Instytutu Neofilologii i Komunikacji Społecznej: The literariness and linguistics of love, Issue 3, Koszalin: Wydawnictwo Uczelniane Politechniki Koszalińskiej, pp. 77-90, 2010
This publication was printed in: Pase Papers 2007, vol. 2. Studies in culture and literature (eds... more This publication was printed in: Pase Papers 2007, vol. 2. Studies in culture and literature (eds. Wojciech Kalaga, Marzena Kubisz, Jacek Mydla), Katowice 2007.
The Pragmatics of Fiction is a pragmatics textbook devoted to the study of fictional texts—unders... more The Pragmatics of Fiction is a pragmatics textbook devoted to the study of fictional texts—understood broadly as the novel, poetry, fictional dialogues in films and TV series, and drama—using pragmatic tools and theories. Locher and Jucker's book addresses "fictional texts as cultural artefacts in their own right" (224) rather than mere artificial depositories of linguistic data for pragmaticists. Rich in theoretical pragmatic approaches, this study explains them based on the examples of, among others, plays, novels, films, comic books, and advertisements, thus following recent scholarly trends of accepting fictional language as a reliable source of data for linguistic investigations and using pragmatics as a methodological tool for analyzing fiction (see Black; Chapman and Clark; Locher and Jucker; Wilson). It draws attention to the fact that fictional communication, much as it mimetically reflects human communication, is special because it involves the "fictional contract" or "a silent agreement between the author and the readers or viewers about the level of veracity that can be expected in a novel, a movie or another piece of fiction" (33). In this way, fictional communication often requires more sophisticated and adapted pragmatic models for its analysis.
The book consists of three parts. Part One looks at fiction as a valuable data resource for pragmatic theorizing and explains why there is such a vague boundary between fictional and nonfictional uses of language. Part Two explores the participation structure of literary communication and focuses on the creation of the story worlds in fiction and on fictional characterization, narration, and plot structure. Part Three discusses various functions of dialogue in fiction and the orality features, which differ from the ones in human communication. It also investigates how societal ideologies (impoliteness, gender norms) imbue fictional texts and how fictional texts can produce real emotions in the [End Page 230] audience. I used this textbook with my students of year 3 BA in a stylistics course (specialization: English Studies in Literature and Culture), so this review is our joint effort and an effect of real classroom interaction.
The aim of this volume is to investigate how the aesthetics of the medium understood as the speci... more The aim of this volume is to investigate how the aesthetics of the medium understood as the specific features of various types of texts (literary/cultural/scientific texts, TV series, political speeches) influence the pragmatic analysis of meaning in context. Context has been so far analysed basically according to two perspectives: a) as given and presumptive, prior to pragmatic actions, in line with the Anglo-American approach inspired by Austin and Grice; and b) as constructed through pragmatic actions, according to what may be defined as the sociological turn, more frequently characterizing European 'continental' studies. In this forthcoming issue of Anglistica AION, we wish to gather new and different insights to context, starting from considering the increasing importance of pragmatic theories, stylistics and statistical studies in the analysis of literary texts, and the questions they pose: Can all texts be analysed pragmatically? Does the genre of a given text with its constraints and/or possibilities force the use of a specific pragmatic theory for its (contextual) analysis? How does the text's aesthetics influence the pragmatic analysis and the results the analyst is left with? Should the temporal-historical aspect be taken into account when choosing a pragmatic theory in
A review of The Merry Wives of Windsor (2015), directed by Paweł Aigner for The Gdańsk Shakespear... more A review of The Merry Wives of Windsor (2015), directed by Paweł Aigner for The Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre (with Teatr Wybrzeże) published by ReviewingShakespeare at https://bloggingshakespeare.com/reviewing-shakespeare/tag/urszula-kizelbach/
Palgrave Macmillan (Language and Linguistics Series), 2023
This book is a pragma-stylistic study of Ian McEwan’s fiction, providing a qualitative analysis o... more This book is a pragma-stylistic study of Ian McEwan’s fiction, providing a qualitative analysis of his selected novels using (im)politeness theory. (Im)politeness is investigated on two levels of analysis: the level of the plot and the story world (intradiegetic level) and the level of the communication between the implied author and implied reader in fiction (extradiegetic level). The pragmatic theory of (im)politeness serves the aim of internal characterisation and helps readers to better understand and explain the characters’ motivations and actions, based on the stylistic analysis of their speech and thoughts and point of view. More importantly, the book introduces the notion of “the impoliteness of the literary fiction” – a state of affairs where the implied author (or narrator) expresses their impolite beliefs to the reader through the text, which has face-threatening consequences for the audience, e.g. moral shock or disgust, dissociation from the protagonist, feeling hurt or ‘put out’. Extradiegetic impoliteness, one of the key characteristics of McEwan’s fiction, offers an alternative to the literary concept of “a secret communion of the author and reader” (Booth 1961), describing an ideal connection, or good rapport, between these two participants of fictional communication. This book aims to unite literary scholars and linguists in the debate on the benefits of combining pragmatics and stylistics in literary analysis, and it will be of interest to a wide audience in both fields.
Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi/Brill (Costerus New Series Online, vol. 206), 2014
Early modern kings adopted a new style of government, Realpolitik, as spelled out in Machiavelli’... more Early modern kings adopted a new style of government, Realpolitik, as spelled out in Machiavelli’s writings. Tudor monarchs, well aware of their questionable right to the throne, posed as great dissimulators, similarly to the modern prince who “must learn from the fox and the lion”. This book paints a portrait of a successful politician according to early modern standards. Kingship is no longer understood as a divinely ordained institution, but is defined as goal-oriented policy-making, relying on conscious acting and the theatrical display of power. The volume offers an intriguing discussion on kingship in pragmatic terms, as the strategic face-saving behaviour of Shakespeare’s kings. It also demonstrates how an efficient or inefficient management of the king’s political face could decide his success or failure as a monarch, and how the Renaissance world of Shakespeare’s history plays is magically combined with modern theories of communication, politeness and face. (blurb info from my Publisher)
Reasons for proposing new book in this area: This book’s aim is to meet the needs of the contemporary trends in drama, pragmatics and in Critical Discourse Analysis. Fairclough (1995) and Wodak and Meyer (2005) have recently expressed their concerns about the study of pragmatics being focused solely on conventional linguistics, studying social interactions without a further social context and thus creating a somewhat idealized, conventional image of social communication. Fairclough (1999) postulates that language is, actually, a social practice, and, as such, it should not be analyzed in isolation. Only when we approach language as a social practice do we start noticing relations of power, domination and ideology that underlie human discourse. This book treats Shakespearean history plays as a linguistic corpus at the disposal of the modern theory. Literary texts (first and second tetralogy) used in this book constitute a decent linguistic sample to which pertain all linguistic rules of everyday language (Kopytko 2004). The book also proves that a linguistic theory (im/politeness) can be successfully applied to the study and analysis of Early Modern drama. In this, it corresponds with other similar studies analyzing dramatic texts from a linguistic perspective, for example Short (1996) or Culpeper and Ravassat (2011). Moreover, pragmatics is of great help when describing the characteristics of Shakespeare’s dramatic figures. Another question that this book addresses is the problem of power and politics in Early Modern England, which is looked at from a pragmatic point of view – politics is viewed here in terms of “saving” or “losing” face. Finally, the question of kingship and its varieties is brought up in this study to set the tone and context to the discussion about Renaissance change in politics with the advent of Realpolitik in Europe. “The literary” is explained by means of “the linguistic”, and “the linguistic” needs “the literary” to widen its scope, which, additionally, contributes to this book’s interdisciplinary nature.
Journal of Historical Pragmatics 25(1): 1-32, 2024
Politeness (Brown and Gilman 1989; Rudanko 1993; Kopytko 1995) and impoliteness (Culpeper 1996, 2... more Politeness (Brown and Gilman 1989; Rudanko 1993; Kopytko 1995) and impoliteness (Culpeper 1996, 2001; Bousfield 2007) have a prominent place in the reading of Shakespearean drama and serve as a means of characterisation. In this study, I utilise (im)politeness and face theory to characterise the royal discourse in 1, 2, 3 Henry VI. The study aims to analyse the linguistic behaviour of King Henry VI to see how well his royal discourse reflects his kingship and how his linguistic inadequacy contributes to his political failures. I investigate Henry’s use of (im)politeness and facework to handle political negotiations and I evaluate his level of awareness of the “political face”, which is the king’s desire to preserve a positive public image and to save face in social interactions. I look at the examples of Henry’s inadequate linguistic behaviour and try to establish why this behaviour was inefficient in a given scene and context.
Journal of Adaptation in Film & Performance, no. 14: 11-29, 2021
The Shakespearean stage productions after 1989 reflected social, political and economic changes i... more The Shakespearean stage productions after 1989 reflected social, political and economic changes in the rapidly transforming Polish reality, which gave rise to a modern type of audience whose sensitivity was shaped by popular music, cinema, digital media and the mass culture. Contemporary Polish directors (Jan Klata, Maja Kleczewska, Grzegorz Jarzyna, Krzysztof Warlikowski) recognized that modernity and tradition can (and should) be combined onstage and that canonical texts can express new meanings in new forms. The new approach to the audience and the canon led to the development of the new aesthetics representing the ‘postdramatic theatre’. The new aesthetics gave new rights to the directors; for example, Maja Kleczewska set her Macbeth in a criminal underworld of the Polish mafia in the 1990s, imbuing her production with kitschy costumes and pop culture symbols. For the same reason, Jan Klata located his H. in the Gdansk shipyard, the birthplace of ‘Solidarity’, infusing his adaptation with the music of The Doors, Metallica and U2. In my analysis of the Polish Shakespearean stage in the post-transformational era, I offer a short overview of some key trends in dramaturgical aesthetics and the directors’ approaches to the adaptation of Shakespeare’s drama to the stage in the 1990s and 2000s. Next, I discuss in more detail the ‘postdramatic’ aesthetics of the modern Shakespeare adaptations based on the examples of two chosen artists, Maja Kleczewska and Jan Klata.
Manners, Norms and Transgressions in the History of English: Literary and Linguistic Approaches, edited by Andreas H. Jucker and Irma Taavitsainen. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 75-99, 2020
Neither literary nor linguistic investigations seem to offer a clear pragmatic description of blu... more Neither literary nor linguistic investigations seem to offer a clear pragmatic description of blunder. Blunders in social communication are popularly associated with gaffes, which are incidental offences that could have been avoided if the speaker had foreseen their offensive or perplexing consequences. It has been claimed (Wierzbicka 2003) that errors and blunders are mostly committed when speakers venture into “unsafe territory” (2003: 283), which makes it easier to make a serious mistake or to embarrass the interlocutor by not taking enough care or not thinking enough. Blunders in Early Modern literature, however, have never been pragmatically analysed even though they form a distinctive linguistic feature of some Shakespearean characters’ speech. This chapter analyses the linguistic behaviour of two comedy characters from Shakespeare’s plays, Mistress Quickly and Falstaff, with special emphasis on the effects of their blunders and how blunders affect both the speaker and the hearer. The aim of the chapter is twofold. First, I try to provide a pragmatic definition of blunder in relation to speech act theory and intentionality and explain how blunders are pragmatically different from gaffes. Next, I describe the perlocutionary effects of blunders based on the examples of Shakespeare characters’ speech and demonstrate how blunders can be employed as a means of literary characterisation.
Pragmatics of Fiction, edited by Miriam A. Locher and Andreas H. Jucker. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 425-454, 2017
The aim of this chapter is to demonstrate the potential of the linguistic notion of politeness, g... more The aim of this chapter is to demonstrate the potential of the linguistic notion of politeness, generally understood as cooperative behaviour, as a tool of literary analysis. Politeness in fiction has so far been used mainly on the intradiegetic level of literary communication as a means of characterization and plot development. Relatively few studies (Jucker 2016) point to and appreciate the role of politeness as a mediator between the narrator and the reader on the extradiegetic level of communication. The chapter provides an overview of critical studies on politeness and impoliteness based on the examples of the works of (mostly) English literature from the Early Modern period through the long eighteenth century up to contemporary times. It demonstrates the transdisciplinary capacity of politeness, since rarely are politeness studies on fiction limited solely to discussions on politeness. Politeness in fiction is analysed in a wider pragma-stylistic context along with Speech Act Theory, Gricean pragmatics, Relevance Theory, and Critical Discourse Analysis.
“Politeness … or a culturally induced sensitivity to politeness, is mankind’s patient, sleepless super-ego”. (Sell 1991: 215)
Walter Scott’s influence on A.S. Pushkin’s historical novel: Rob Roy and The Captain’s daughter
... more Walter Scott’s influence on A.S. Pushkin’s historical novel: Rob Roy and The Captain’s daughter This article analyses the influence of Sir Walter Scott’s historical fiction (Rob Roy) on the development of the historical novel in Russia in the first half of the 19th century, based on the example of Pushkin’s The Captain’s Daughter. I argue that both Scott and Pushkin had a similar approach to their national and local history and collected historical material in the same way (through archival research and by contacting local people who had witnessed the events of the Jacobite Rebellion, [1715] and the Pugachev’s Rebellion [1773-75]). A close analysis of both texts presents examples of a similar poetics of the narration, dialectal use of language and dialogue, and the use of local colour and folk elements, such as folk songs or old sayings, which serve as mottoes for particular chapters in the novels.
False or “mad” jealousy is the central theme in William Shakespeare’s Othello and The Winter’s Ta... more False or “mad” jealousy is the central theme in William Shakespeare’s Othello and The Winter’s Tale. Both Othello and Leontes, the protagonists of the plays, seem to have great difficulties distinguishing between the surface of things (or what they see) and the truth. Both can be classified as tragic figures, since they commit an error of judgment – due to a flaw in their nature (be it self-love or suspiciousness) they misjudge the situation and are easily led astray. In fact, dramatic irony, which is evidently present in the plays, can be exemplified by a pragmatic analysis of the two texts. It is interesting to observe that both characters are focused on saving face in front of others, not only to avoid criticism by the society (Leontes) but also to be able to cope with the wife’s supposed betrayal (Othello). Pragmatics helps establish the causes of the characters’ tragedy: Othello’s false jealousy is conceived by Iago’s infelicitous speech acts and develops only because Othello is unable to grasp Iago’s real intention in communication. On the other hand, Leontes in his obsession is looking for hidden meanings in things just to prove that he is right; his verbal behaviour abounds in examples of self-deceit. The aim of my paper is to define jealousy in pragmatic terms, for example: face, conversational implicature, felicity conditions.
Richard III’s courtship of Lady Anne in William Shakespeare’s King Richard III is a blend of cour... more Richard III’s courtship of Lady Anne in William Shakespeare’s King Richard III is a blend of courtly speech and sexual extravaganza. His sexual energy and power of seduction were invented by Shakespeare to enhance the theatrical effect of this figure and, at the same time, to present Richard as a tragic character. Richard’s eroticism in Act 1 Scene 2 makes him a complicated individual. Playing a seducer is one of the guises that he uses to achieve his political aims on the one hand, and, on the other, the pose of a sexually attractive lover enables him to put his masculinity to the test. Throughout the scene Richard is haunted by his deformity that, together with his villainy, makes him a stranger to the world and an enemy to his family and the court. In order to overcome his self-image of a disproportional cripple he manifests his sexuality towards Anne to boost his self-esteem and to confirm that the lady will accept him despite his obvious physical shortcomings. This article uses Georges Bataille’s (1991, 1986) theory of eroticism and erotic desire to characterize Richard as a tragic individual and to explain the reasons behind his unexpected sexual behaviour in the seduction scene.
Reinventing the Renaissance: Shakespeare and His Contemporaries in Adaptation and Performance, edited by Sarah Brown, Robert Lublin, Lyndsay McCulloch. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 92-103, 2013
“William Shakespeare is popularly supposed to have been born on 23 April 1564, or on St. George’s... more “William Shakespeare is popularly supposed to have been born on 23 April 1564, or on St. George’s Day. The date may in fact have been 21 April or 22 April, but the coincidence of the national festival is at least appropriate” (Ackroyd 2005: 3). Peter Ackroyd’s Shakespeare: The Biography (2005) combines research melted into a fictitious narrative. Ackroyd's novel does not aspire to be a serious literary biography, but neither does it read as just a pretty story. The problem of non-fictional fiction and fictional non-fiction is also one pertaining to Stephen Greenblatt's Will in the World, formally, a more or less traditional biography, yet one which reads quite often like speculative fiction. Stephen Greenblatt’s Will in the World: How Shakespeare became Shakespeare (2004) is a literary biography that aims at revealing a Shakespeare who hides himself behind the verses of his plays and who throughout his life acts as a master of disguise. Both biographers are at the same time historians, who investigate historical data and “fictionalise” facts in order to create a (new) story about Shakespeare’s life. Greenblatt-biographer sticks to historical evidence and aims at presenting Shakespeare as a historical figure. Ackroyd-novelist seems to have more freedom in interpreting history and treats Shakespeare as a fictitious character. Thus, it is interesting to compare the two biographies and discuss the freedom of the “biographers” to exploit the white spots in Shakespeare's life.
References:
Ackroyd, Peter. 2005. Shakespeare: The Biography. London: Vintage Books.
Greenblatt, Stephen. 2004. Will in the World. How Shakespeare became Shakespeare. London: Jonathan Cape.
Franssen, Paul J. C. M. 2007. “The Life and Opinions of William Shakespeare, Gentleman. Biography between Fact and Fiction”, in: Literature as History/History as Literature: Fact and Fiction in Medieval to Eighteenth-Century British Literature, ed. Sonja Fielitz, p. 63-77. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Studia Anglica Posnaniensia 47 (2-3): 147-160, 2012
Renaissance England is often discussed in the context of theatre and theatrical acting. The fact ... more Renaissance England is often discussed in the context of theatre and theatrical acting. The fact is that Renaissance monarchs, too, viewed kingship in terms of theatrical display and public performance. Such is the nature of royalty presented by King James I in Basilicon Doron. Queen Elizabeth I was playing all her life. Faced with the problem of her femininity in the world of men, as well as her ambivalent hereditary rights as a member of the Tudor dynasty, she focused on legitimizing her reign through playing different roles - she played the fearful king, the loving queen, she even played Virgin Mary. But Elizabeth emerges as the most stunning actress when she plays herself. On her summer visit to Wanstead in 1578 she took an active part in the pageant “The lady of May”, playing herself, “Good Queen Bess”, which Sir Philip Sidney depicted in his pastoral romance The lady of May. In this way, Elizabeth became her own icon. This paper provides instances of the Queen’s political role play in a historical and socio-cultural context of the time.
Zeszyty naukowe Instytutu Neofilologii i Komunikacji Społecznej: The literariness and linguistics of love, Issue 3, Koszalin: Wydawnictwo Uczelniane Politechniki Koszalińskiej, pp. 77-90, 2010
This publication was printed in: Pase Papers 2007, vol. 2. Studies in culture and literature (eds... more This publication was printed in: Pase Papers 2007, vol. 2. Studies in culture and literature (eds. Wojciech Kalaga, Marzena Kubisz, Jacek Mydla), Katowice 2007.
The Pragmatics of Fiction is a pragmatics textbook devoted to the study of fictional texts—unders... more The Pragmatics of Fiction is a pragmatics textbook devoted to the study of fictional texts—understood broadly as the novel, poetry, fictional dialogues in films and TV series, and drama—using pragmatic tools and theories. Locher and Jucker's book addresses "fictional texts as cultural artefacts in their own right" (224) rather than mere artificial depositories of linguistic data for pragmaticists. Rich in theoretical pragmatic approaches, this study explains them based on the examples of, among others, plays, novels, films, comic books, and advertisements, thus following recent scholarly trends of accepting fictional language as a reliable source of data for linguistic investigations and using pragmatics as a methodological tool for analyzing fiction (see Black; Chapman and Clark; Locher and Jucker; Wilson). It draws attention to the fact that fictional communication, much as it mimetically reflects human communication, is special because it involves the "fictional contract" or "a silent agreement between the author and the readers or viewers about the level of veracity that can be expected in a novel, a movie or another piece of fiction" (33). In this way, fictional communication often requires more sophisticated and adapted pragmatic models for its analysis.
The book consists of three parts. Part One looks at fiction as a valuable data resource for pragmatic theorizing and explains why there is such a vague boundary between fictional and nonfictional uses of language. Part Two explores the participation structure of literary communication and focuses on the creation of the story worlds in fiction and on fictional characterization, narration, and plot structure. Part Three discusses various functions of dialogue in fiction and the orality features, which differ from the ones in human communication. It also investigates how societal ideologies (impoliteness, gender norms) imbue fictional texts and how fictional texts can produce real emotions in the [End Page 230] audience. I used this textbook with my students of year 3 BA in a stylistics course (specialization: English Studies in Literature and Culture), so this review is our joint effort and an effect of real classroom interaction.
The aim of this volume is to investigate how the aesthetics of the medium understood as the speci... more The aim of this volume is to investigate how the aesthetics of the medium understood as the specific features of various types of texts (literary/cultural/scientific texts, TV series, political speeches) influence the pragmatic analysis of meaning in context. Context has been so far analysed basically according to two perspectives: a) as given and presumptive, prior to pragmatic actions, in line with the Anglo-American approach inspired by Austin and Grice; and b) as constructed through pragmatic actions, according to what may be defined as the sociological turn, more frequently characterizing European 'continental' studies. In this forthcoming issue of Anglistica AION, we wish to gather new and different insights to context, starting from considering the increasing importance of pragmatic theories, stylistics and statistical studies in the analysis of literary texts, and the questions they pose: Can all texts be analysed pragmatically? Does the genre of a given text with its constraints and/or possibilities force the use of a specific pragmatic theory for its (contextual) analysis? How does the text's aesthetics influence the pragmatic analysis and the results the analyst is left with? Should the temporal-historical aspect be taken into account when choosing a pragmatic theory in
A review of The Merry Wives of Windsor (2015), directed by Paweł Aigner for The Gdańsk Shakespear... more A review of The Merry Wives of Windsor (2015), directed by Paweł Aigner for The Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre (with Teatr Wybrzeże) published by ReviewingShakespeare at https://bloggingshakespeare.com/reviewing-shakespeare/tag/urszula-kizelbach/
Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance, vol. 12 (27), pp. 155-159., 2015
This is a theatre review of Shakespeare's Hamlet directed by Jan Klata, which I watched at Gdańsk... more This is a theatre review of Shakespeare's Hamlet directed by Jan Klata, which I watched at Gdańsk Shakespeare Festival in Poland in 2014.
The Taming of the Shrew is a sex farce which, undoubtedly, appealed to more primitive tastes of ... more The Taming of the Shrew is a sex farce which, undoubtedly, appealed to more primitive tastes of the Elizabethan audience. It shows a verbal struggle for power in love between Katherina and Petruchio, a “shrew” and a fortune hunter. Much Ado About Nothing is generically classified as a high comedy, in which witty repartees, verbal cunning, and discoursive intelligence constitute a principal source of laughter. It highlights a comical aspect of courtship before marriage in a romantic conflict between Benedick, “Mr Stuck-Up”, and lady Beatrice, the “harpy”. Shakespearean romantic love thrives on misunderstanding, and we can see that what speakers intend to say is often far richer than what they directly express. It is interesting to observe how both couples purposefully violate Gricean maxims of conversation to communicate feelings and to admit that they are, in fact, in love. Their communication relies on recognizing the intention of the other speaker, which soon becomes mutual knowledge. The aim of my analysis is to demonstrate that the discourse of love in drama is infelicitous. Cross-purpose talk, which is based on “the non-securing of uptake” (Elam 1980: 164) is a popular source of laughter in comedy, but in Much Ado About Nothing and in The Taming of the Shrew it seems one of the necessary conditions of an effective communication. This analysis is also an attempt to revisit the role of the Gricean maxims and conversational implicature in communication in drama.
Elam, Keir. 1980. The Semiotics of Theatre and Drama. London and New York: Methuen.
Horn, Laurence R. 2006. “Implicature”, in The Handbook of Pragmatics, eds Laurence R. Horn and Gregory Ward. Oxford: Blackwell.
Uploads
Reasons for proposing new book in this area:
This book’s aim is to meet the needs of the contemporary trends in drama, pragmatics and in Critical Discourse Analysis. Fairclough (1995) and Wodak and Meyer (2005) have recently expressed their concerns about the study of pragmatics being focused solely on conventional linguistics, studying social interactions without a further social context and thus creating a somewhat idealized, conventional image of social communication. Fairclough (1999) postulates that language is, actually, a social practice, and, as such, it should not be analyzed in isolation. Only when we approach language as a social practice do we start noticing relations of power, domination and ideology that underlie human discourse. This book treats Shakespearean history plays as a linguistic corpus at the disposal of the modern theory. Literary texts (first and second tetralogy) used in this book constitute a decent linguistic sample to which pertain all linguistic rules of everyday language (Kopytko 2004). The book also proves that a linguistic theory (im/politeness) can be successfully applied to the study and analysis of Early Modern drama. In this, it corresponds with other similar studies analyzing dramatic texts from a linguistic perspective, for example Short (1996) or Culpeper and Ravassat (2011). Moreover, pragmatics is of great help when describing the characteristics of Shakespeare’s dramatic figures. Another question that this book addresses is the problem of power and politics in Early Modern England, which is looked at from a pragmatic point of view – politics is viewed here in terms of “saving” or “losing” face. Finally, the question of kingship and its varieties is brought up in this study to set the tone and context to the discussion about Renaissance change in politics with the advent of Realpolitik in Europe. “The literary” is explained by means of “the linguistic”, and “the linguistic” needs “the literary” to widen its scope, which, additionally, contributes to this book’s interdisciplinary nature.
“Politeness … or a culturally induced sensitivity to politeness, is mankind’s patient, sleepless super-ego”. (Sell 1991: 215)
This article analyses the influence of Sir Walter Scott’s historical fiction (Rob Roy) on the development of the historical novel in Russia in the first half of the 19th century, based on the example of Pushkin’s The Captain’s Daughter. I argue that both Scott and Pushkin had a similar approach to their national and local history and collected historical material in the same way (through archival research and by contacting local people who had witnessed the events of the Jacobite Rebellion, [1715] and the Pugachev’s Rebellion [1773-75]). A close analysis of both texts presents examples of a similar poetics of the narration, dialectal use of language and dialogue, and the use of local colour and folk elements, such as folk songs or old sayings, which serve as mottoes for particular chapters in the novels.
References:
Ackroyd, Peter. 2005. Shakespeare: The Biography. London: Vintage Books.
Greenblatt, Stephen. 2004. Will in the World. How Shakespeare became Shakespeare. London: Jonathan Cape.
Franssen, Paul J. C. M. 2007. “The Life and Opinions of William Shakespeare, Gentleman. Biography between Fact and Fiction”, in: Literature as History/History as Literature: Fact and Fiction in Medieval to Eighteenth-Century British Literature, ed. Sonja Fielitz, p. 63-77. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
The book consists of three parts. Part One looks at fiction as a valuable data resource for pragmatic theorizing and explains why there is such a vague boundary between fictional and nonfictional uses of language. Part Two explores the participation structure of literary communication and focuses on the creation of the story worlds in fiction and on fictional characterization, narration, and plot structure. Part Three discusses various functions of dialogue in fiction and the orality features, which differ from the ones in human communication. It also investigates how societal ideologies (impoliteness, gender norms) imbue fictional texts and how fictional texts can produce real emotions in the [End Page 230] audience. I used this textbook with my students of year 3 BA in a stylistics course (specialization: English Studies in Literature and Culture), so this review is our joint effort and an effect of real classroom interaction.
http://bloggingshakespeare.com/reviewing-shakespeare/imogenreclaimed-globe-2016/
Reasons for proposing new book in this area:
This book’s aim is to meet the needs of the contemporary trends in drama, pragmatics and in Critical Discourse Analysis. Fairclough (1995) and Wodak and Meyer (2005) have recently expressed their concerns about the study of pragmatics being focused solely on conventional linguistics, studying social interactions without a further social context and thus creating a somewhat idealized, conventional image of social communication. Fairclough (1999) postulates that language is, actually, a social practice, and, as such, it should not be analyzed in isolation. Only when we approach language as a social practice do we start noticing relations of power, domination and ideology that underlie human discourse. This book treats Shakespearean history plays as a linguistic corpus at the disposal of the modern theory. Literary texts (first and second tetralogy) used in this book constitute a decent linguistic sample to which pertain all linguistic rules of everyday language (Kopytko 2004). The book also proves that a linguistic theory (im/politeness) can be successfully applied to the study and analysis of Early Modern drama. In this, it corresponds with other similar studies analyzing dramatic texts from a linguistic perspective, for example Short (1996) or Culpeper and Ravassat (2011). Moreover, pragmatics is of great help when describing the characteristics of Shakespeare’s dramatic figures. Another question that this book addresses is the problem of power and politics in Early Modern England, which is looked at from a pragmatic point of view – politics is viewed here in terms of “saving” or “losing” face. Finally, the question of kingship and its varieties is brought up in this study to set the tone and context to the discussion about Renaissance change in politics with the advent of Realpolitik in Europe. “The literary” is explained by means of “the linguistic”, and “the linguistic” needs “the literary” to widen its scope, which, additionally, contributes to this book’s interdisciplinary nature.
“Politeness … or a culturally induced sensitivity to politeness, is mankind’s patient, sleepless super-ego”. (Sell 1991: 215)
This article analyses the influence of Sir Walter Scott’s historical fiction (Rob Roy) on the development of the historical novel in Russia in the first half of the 19th century, based on the example of Pushkin’s The Captain’s Daughter. I argue that both Scott and Pushkin had a similar approach to their national and local history and collected historical material in the same way (through archival research and by contacting local people who had witnessed the events of the Jacobite Rebellion, [1715] and the Pugachev’s Rebellion [1773-75]). A close analysis of both texts presents examples of a similar poetics of the narration, dialectal use of language and dialogue, and the use of local colour and folk elements, such as folk songs or old sayings, which serve as mottoes for particular chapters in the novels.
References:
Ackroyd, Peter. 2005. Shakespeare: The Biography. London: Vintage Books.
Greenblatt, Stephen. 2004. Will in the World. How Shakespeare became Shakespeare. London: Jonathan Cape.
Franssen, Paul J. C. M. 2007. “The Life and Opinions of William Shakespeare, Gentleman. Biography between Fact and Fiction”, in: Literature as History/History as Literature: Fact and Fiction in Medieval to Eighteenth-Century British Literature, ed. Sonja Fielitz, p. 63-77. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
The book consists of three parts. Part One looks at fiction as a valuable data resource for pragmatic theorizing and explains why there is such a vague boundary between fictional and nonfictional uses of language. Part Two explores the participation structure of literary communication and focuses on the creation of the story worlds in fiction and on fictional characterization, narration, and plot structure. Part Three discusses various functions of dialogue in fiction and the orality features, which differ from the ones in human communication. It also investigates how societal ideologies (impoliteness, gender norms) imbue fictional texts and how fictional texts can produce real emotions in the [End Page 230] audience. I used this textbook with my students of year 3 BA in a stylistics course (specialization: English Studies in Literature and Culture), so this review is our joint effort and an effect of real classroom interaction.
http://bloggingshakespeare.com/reviewing-shakespeare/imogenreclaimed-globe-2016/
Elam, Keir. 1980. The Semiotics of Theatre and Drama. London and New York: Methuen.
Horn, Laurence R. 2006. “Implicature”, in The Handbook of Pragmatics, eds Laurence R. Horn and Gregory Ward. Oxford: Blackwell.