Linguistic criticism of the interior monologue in fiction

Abstract

This article applies Linguistic Criticism tools (Fowler, 1981) as methodological framework for interpreting narratological devices in fiction pointing out the relationship between the perspective of the narrator and the character. Fragments from a Kosovan contemporary novel by Mehmet Kraja (2005) are analyzed focusing on the non-intrusive narration and the internal perspectivism of the literary text. A variety of linguistic markers, in particular transitivity, representation of actions, events and states and the presentation of speech and thought are used to examine the mind style of the character when he goes through physical actions, perceptions, emotions and mental experiences. The study shows that the linguistic choices correlate throughout the novel and are associated with the discrepancy between the elaborated code of transmitting faithfully the interior world of the character on one side and the mechanical unwilling actions of this character, producing the ironical reading of a specific historical period in communist Albania and former Yugoslavia.