Mock Politeness in Two Victorian Plays: A Pragmastylistic Perspective

Huihui Jiang (University of Basel)

Mock politeness, the inappropriate use of politeness strategies, has been described as an impolite linguistic phenomenon, a mismatch between the surface form or meaning and underlying intention by previous studies (Culpeper, Haugh, & Kádár, 2017; Taylor, 2015; etc.). Despite featuring prominently in im/politeness studies and being discussed by linguists, mock politeness has nevertheless not received the attention it deserves. This study seeks to further explore this issue by examining two Victorian political plays by Oscar Wild and Bernard Shaw with special attention to politician characters, who use mock politeness strategies to give or take offence; they are saving and maintaining their faces and public images while offending others’ faces and images. In my presentation, I will first introduce the notions, theories and development of im/politeness and mock politeness to provide a thorough overview of mock politeness. Then, I will discuss the rationale of the pragmatics of fiction to provide a theoretical foundation for the analysis of literary communication, namely, how mock politeness works in literary characterisation and dynamic power relations at the intradiegetic level and works in the communication between the playwrights and its recipients, which engages the implied author and implied reader at the extradiegetic level that conveys meanings and ideologies.

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