Abstract
This chapter considers Jane Austen’s subtle use of different ways of representing speech in her fiction, and the effects on the interpretation of characters and events. Bray outlines the speech and thought presentation model first developed by Leech and Short (Style in Fiction: A Linguistic Introduction to English Fictional Prose. Harlow: Longman, 1981), and its subsequent revisions. He discusses the frequent shifts between categories on the speech presentation scale in passages from Austen’s novels, as well as her use of free indirect speech within quotations. Contrary to most critical opinion, he argues that this style is not only used for ironic effect in Austen’s fiction. The chapter finishes by considering how the speech of two of Austen’s less voluble heroines, Fanny Price in Mansfield Park and Anne Elliot in Persuasion, is represented.
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Notes
- 1.
Short (2012) prefers the term ‘presentation’ to ‘representation’ when describing the three scales and their constituent categories, on the grounds that the former ‘focuses attention entirely on the presenting situation’, while the latter ‘suggests a change from an anterior situation to the posterior, presenting situation’ (2012: 21). While acknowledging this point, this book will stick to the use of ‘representation’ throughout, both because it has been the most commonly-used term in the critical literature and because it allows more scope for the varying degrees of ‘faithfulness’ to an original utterance, thought, or piece of writing which can be implied in fiction.
- 2.
‘N’, which stands for Narration, is, in Semino and Short’s words, ‘enclosed within square brackets because it is not a category on the presentational scales’, while ‘FDS’ is in round brackets as a result of their belief that ‘the free direct categories are best seen as a sub-type, or variant, of the respective direct categories.’ (2004: 49).
- 3.
According to Leech and Short the different location of the norm on the thought representation scale gives FIT a contrasting effect; this view will be discussed further in the next chapter.
- 4.
Mrs. Elton’s speech will be discussed further, in relation to connotations of ‘vulgarity’ in Austen’s fiction, in Chap. 6.
Works Cited
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Bray, J. (2018). The Representation of Speech. In: The Language of Jane Austen. Palgrave Studies in Language, Literature and Style. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72162-0_3
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