uinimmiiitumiimanmu - Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Basic Cencepts
convenLions, which, as in any other discourse type, can be
respecLed or violaLed (see van Dijk 1977, PraLt 1977> . One of
Che idiosyncraLic feaCures of 2OÉh century liLeraLure S.s Che
Cendency Lo deliberaCely break the convenLions of ficLion aL
differenL levels: wiChin Lhe texÉ iÉself, Chus creaÉing whaL
from a logical perspecCive are impossible worlds, or worlds
which have internal contradicCions, as in Cypical posCmodern
ficLion; aud aL Llie level of inLeraction with Che reader, by
means of Che defeat of expecCaCions regardiiig noLiofis such as
whaÉ is ficCion, whaL is poetry and what is literaLure. PraLC
(1977: 211> observes that:
tn the literary speech situation, in other words, rule-breaking can be
the peint of Uhe utuerance. (. . .) Within literature, Uhis kiwi of
linguisUic subversiveness is associated especially with Ube se-called
‘new’ or ‘antí-novel’ , wbere WC find radically decreasing conformity Ue
Uhe unruarked case ter noveis and a concornitant radical increase in the
nurnber and difficulty of implicatures requireci te make sense of a given
text.
We find, Chen, ÉhaL literature can be seen as paradoxical
and conflicÉive from Cwo complementary points of view. One,
because, as a Cype of arÉ form, iC holds an ambiguous relaLion
wiLh realiLy, which it reflects buL from which iL is also
differenC.
13 Second, because fiction is a discourse Cype WíÉh
lis own rules and convenLiofis, which are violaLed
sysLernaCically in 2OLh cenCury fiction. IL S.s imporLanÉ Lo
poinÉ ouÉ, however, LhaL Éhese violaCions are interpreÉed as
rneaningful ulÉimaLely, eiCher Éhrough irony or other mechanisms
ChaL place a heavy burden of interpreCaLion on Lhe reader (See
Breuer 1980 and Iser 1989)
In brief, in Chis section, 1 argue for a view of
literaCure and ficLion as paradoxical and as consCituCing a
Cype of conflicÉive communication. By Chis 1 do noÉ mean ÉhaL
liCeraLure S.s uncooperaCive as a communicaLion Cype; 1 mean
ChaL liLerature violaLes nonns and convenLions, parLicularly
2OCh cenÉury liCerature, and Lhis means a greaCer processing
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