Chapter 6

Practical Applications

of the Proposed Methodology

in Literature Classrooms

222

A stylistic approach to the teaching literature was proposed in chapter four as

an ideal alternative to the more traditional and teacher-centred approaches cur-

rently followed in Indian universities. It was claimed that a stylistic methodology

bLlsed on the approach could confer greater language and literary benefits on ESL

learners, ensure their active participation in the class work, and respect at the

same time the essential nature of literary communication. How these benefits can

be attained in practice is examined in this section.

The teachers of literature in India's ESL classes are in an unenviable position

: they are called upon to impart to their learners communicative skills pertinent to

the normal modes of expressioni, but the learning materials they are supplied with

are literary texts which conform to the literary mode of expression. I t becomes

their predicament how to relate the two modes of communication in the class-

room. One obvious way to correlate any two incompatible modes will be to iden-

t ~ f y the common factor between them and focus on it. Both literary and conven-

tional modes of communication are, basically, kinds of language use; they use the

resources of the same language system, the structures and vocabulary of English.

This being so, the manner in which the resources of the language system are used

to communicative effect in literary discourse can be compared with their use in

ordinary kinds of communication. This will make clear by contrast what it is that

is distinctive to both literary and conventional uses of English. I t will also serve

to integrate the two subjects, English language and English literature, which are

commonly taught in isolation one from the other.

It becomes, therefore, apparent that the proposed methodology should be based

on a comparative procedure. It aims at developing in the student an awareness of

223

h o a literature communicates by relating it to normal uses of language.

Let us assume that the poem given below, Robert Frost 's "Dust of snow",

constitutes part of the learning material prescribed by a board of studies for the

teaching of English language to ESL learners at the under-graduate level.

The way a crow

Shook down on me

The dust of snow

From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart

A change of mood

And saved some part

Of a day I had rued.2

(1-8)

Ideally we should devise a teaching strategy that fulfils the following conditions:

(i) the learner's knowledge of the language system should be reinforced.

(ii) the learner should recognise what it is that is distinctive to the use of

language in ordinary discourse as opposed to that in literary communication.

(iii) the learner should also recognise what it is that is unique to the use of

language in literary discourse as opposed to ordinary discourse.

(iv) the teaching strategy should help the learner discover an interpretative

technique which he could later on apply to other examples of literary discourse as

well.

224

(v) the classroom strategy should also respect the essential nature of literary

communication

Lecturing to the learners on the extra-textual aspects of the poem such as the

biography of its writer, socio-cultural and economic aspects of its age cannot achieve

the linguistic objectives aimed at in an ESL course. Speaking at length on what the

critics consider as the message of the poem and its social relevance may provide

the learner with helpful information from the examination point of view, but it

cannot develop in h ~ m either an independent reading strategy for literature or a

rcl~able interpretative skill. Translating the poem into the regional language of the

learner and resorting to summary and paraphrase can make the poem easily

comprehensible to him but will at the same time misrepresent the essential nature

of literary communication.' They will tend to look upon literature as an unneces-

sarily complicating way of expressing the obvious.

Thus a comparative approach to the teaching of literature is validated both by

the essential nature of the teaching materials (literary texts) and by the purpose for

which they are taught in an ESL situation. A literary work, being an act of com-

munication, can be profitably compared with other kinds of communication, high-

l i~h t ing by the way how the language system is realised differently in different

communicative contexts.

In this context, dualists4 recommend the comparison of the given text with its

own conceptual sense. Every literary text or message has a basic sense (which they

prefer to term as its conceptual sense) which when compared with its original

textual version can indicate what it is that is distinctive to its language use as

225

different from the nlode of irs expression in conventional communication. Thus in

thz example given below

The lady flew out of the room - given text

The lady moved out of the room - primary conceptual sense of the text

the sense of the text can be a possible substitute for the original version at the

primary or basic conceptual level. The comparison between the two can highlight

the difference between them. As linguistic data, the original version is deviant: it

breaks the selection restriction rule of English language system by attributing the

ability for flying [ + flying], normally attributable to birds and flying machines

only, to a human being [ + human]. Thus what is kept distinct in the language code

is combined in the text. But at the discourse level, the teacher of literature can

prompt the learners to discover the communicative potential of the linguistic de-

viation which tries to emphasise the speed with which the lady 'moved out ' of the

room. The writer evaluates the movement of the lady from his unique personal

angle and subjectively identifies its parallel in the flight of birds. It is subjective

because it deviates from the conventional and socially shared view on the topic of

human movement. Theoretically, it is possible for a teacher to elicit these observa-

tions from the learners with the help of suitable promptings, suggestions and ex-

amples. But in practice, this method throws up the following issues:

(i) The teacher's wording of the introductory prompt

Question What is the primary conceptual sense of this unit?

itself can appear forbidding to a learner at the under-graduate level. The teacher's

attempt to explicate the meaning of the phrase ( 'primary conceptual sense ')

226

through an exhaustive lecture will only help to worsen the situation as i t will lead

him to think that something more ominous is in store for him. A prompt is meant

to ensure the learner's participation in the work, not to frighten him away and a

direction which in itself demands further explanation is pedagogically not advis-

able in a classroom. Ideally, a prompt should not attract attention to itself but

should pave the way for smooth transition to the subject of discussion at hand.

(ii) The very ident~fication of the primary conceptual sense of a passage be-

comes progressively subjective and hence complicated as the length of the passage

gets increasingly longer. What one student considers as the primary conceptual

sense of a passage may be different from what another one thinks of the same text.

This can be made clear in relation to the example "Dust of Snow" quoted already

from Robert Frost. Asked to attempt the primary conceptual sense of the poem,

the teacher is likely to be confronted with as variant conceptualisations as given

below:

(a) My chance encounter with a bird has affected me greatly

(b) That a bird shook down snow on me from a tree changed my mood for the

day.

(c) My confrontation with death has given me a new outlook on life.

(d) A crow's shaking down of dust of snow on me from a hemlock tree gave

me a happy mood.

I t may be noted that what the teacher really wants to generale is a version of the

original text that embodies the primary sense of the original but is devoid of its

unique language pattern. This will enable him to arrange a comparison between

227

tl;; two and wilh the help of this comparison to reveal the distinctiveness of both

the literary and the conventional modes of communication. The learners should be

helped to discover how the poetic context confers the notion of death on the

linzuistic elements as varied as ' c row' , 'dust ' , ' snow' , and 'hemlock tree' by ef-

fecting close association between them in the poem. But what the teacher receives

in effect from his learners is a plethora of individual versions, some of which are

summaries (as in a ' ) , some interpretations (c), and some combinations of both

paraphrase and summary (b and d). In the midst of the ensuing confusion, precious

class time will be used up in generating a standardised alternative version that can

afford comparison with the original and bestow linguistic benefits on learners. The

learners whose versions have been rejected or modified may even tend to doubt

the very objectivity of the whole exercise.

(iii) A third problem connected with this methodology is that it does not ex-

plain how the learners can recognise the conceptual sense, though primary, of a

passage even before they analyse it in some detail. This may not be apparent in a

poem like" Dust of Snow" but may appear crucial in a text relatively more diffi-

L U J ~ .

(iv) The dualist's notion of paraphrase rests on the assumption that there is

some basic sense that can be preserved in different renderings. This possibility is

not likely to be challenged in workaday uses of language. But in literary dis-

course, paraphrase may become problematic. If asked to render the conceptual

sense of Frost's poem. should the learner attempt it to expound its hidden, meta-

phorical meaning (the notion of death) or its surface literal meaning (the speak-

t r ' s encounter with a bird)?

228

Leech and short' on the other hand provide two " mutually supporting" mod-

els of style - stylistic variants model and foregrounding model - each of which in

its own way can provide a standard for comparing choices so as to bring out the

distinctiveness of a grven mode of communication. Whereas the stylistic variants

model locates stylistic effect against a background of other equivalent variants, the

foregrounding model locates stylistic effect against a background of more normal

or expected expressions which could have occurred. These models are in turn based

on Leech and Short's own classification between qualitative and quantitative

foregrounding. Foregrounding model relates itself to qualitative deviation where

the deviation is from the rules of the language code itself. Stylistic variants model6 is

related to quantitative foregrounding for the deviation here is from some expected

frequency or conventions of language use only.

If we define style in terms of stylistic variants, we assume that language speci-

fies a repertoire or code or possibilities, and that a writer's style consists in

preferences exercised within the limits of that code. ' In order to exemplify this

assumption. Leech and Short choose an example from Katherine Mansfield's short

story and compare it with its equivalent choices which "the author could have used

in its p l a ~ e " . ~ Any choice qualifies itself as an equivalent stylistic variant pro-

vided it fits into the message meaningfully and does not alter the message to a

greater or lesser degree. Thus, as variant realizations of the original, they identify

a minimum of four choices at the semantic level, three choices at the syntactic

level, two choices at the graphological level and propose further discussion with

the unwritten alternatives that might have occurred at the phonological level. In

considering variant realizations of the same passage in this way, it is proposed, we

can point out the stylistic values of the original (an example of literary discourse)

ant i of the alternatives (representative of normal discourse) and can prove why

none of the variants are as satisfactory as the original. This in particular will

highlight the distinctiveness of literary mode of communication and serve to prove

our initial intuitive judgement about a literary passage. Leech and short further

confirm:

And by llmiting ourselves specifically to stylistic alternatives, we can

pinpoint the inferences from the text which are the basis of literary

appreciat~on. '

Paradoxically enough it is the very problem of how to limit the alternative

conceptualisations to a given passage that confronts the teacher of literature in the

classroom. We should take into account the number of students in the class as well

as the various levels of language organisation such as syntactic, semantic, phono-

Iozical. grammatical and graphological. Further, each of these choices has to be

compared and contrasted with the original to bring out the stylistic value of the

latter. Without further comment, it can be inferred how wearisome the methodol-

o;~y will be even when applied to as short a poem as "Dust of snow". At the

semantic level alone, the alternative realizations to the lexical items ' c rowf , 'dus t ' ,

'snow', 'hemlock t ree ' , 'heart', 'change of mood' , ' saved' , and ' rued' are poten-

tially limitless. In fact Leech and Short themselves recognise this problem and

admit :

. . . although we may generally have neither the time nor the inclination

to look at literary language under the microscope in this way, the fact

230

that it can be done is important, and the doing of it cannot fail to sharpen

observation. by making us aware of how larger effects are built up from

smaller ones. 10

There is no denying the stylistic value of this methodology and the theoretical

sophistication underlying i t , but what is debatable is its adaptability to an under -

graduate classroom where the participants are only learners of literature - neither

linguists nor professional critics.

Widdowson" too accepts the comparative principle underlying the teaching

and learning of literature. However he does not share the dualists' view that the

comparison should be between the original literary extract and its primary con-

ceptual sense Nor does he agree with the methodology of Leech and Short for

whom the comparison is between the literary passage and its equivalent stylistic

variants in case of quantitative foregrounding, and between the literary passage

and its more normal and linguistically non-deviant expressions in the language in

case of qualitative foregrounding. The methodology Widdowson advocates is a

two-tier one:

(i) The teacher has to set up an example of literary discourse alongside exam-

ples of conventional discourse and devise exercises which lead the learner to make

explicit comparisons between them. Using control passages of a conventional kind

iri this way, the teacher can establish the general character of both the literary and

the conventional kinds of discourse.

(ii) Once the teacher has used control passages of a conventional kind to estab-

lish the general character of both literary and conventional discourses, he can

23 1

proceed to 3 closer scrutiny of the way language is used in individual instances of

l i t ~ r a r y xritinp. What this involves, to Widdowson. is the analysis of how linguis-

tic elements takr on particular values as they occur mutually conditioned in a

given literary context

Widdowson's approach is basically similar to that of dualists on the one hand,

and that of Leech and short on the other as he too accepts a comparative method-

ology. However he differs from the latter in that he insists on developing among

the learners an awareness of how normal discourse differs from literary discourse.

This makes it particularly relevant to a literature classroom where the focus should

fall, ideally, on learners and their linguistic development. But what strikes as odd

about Widdowson's methodology is the division he brings in between the indi-

vidual instance of textual analysis and the general larger-scale comparison be-

tween discourse functions which should precede it. Widdowson justifies the use of

this larger-scale comparison between discourse functions in these words:

The assumption is that this approach will bring home to the learner

certain ways in which literary writing functions as a mode of communi-

caring. We can regard this as the promotion of an orientation to literary

study. Once this orientation is established we can proceed to a consid-

eration of how particular linguistic elements in a piece of writing con-

tribute ro its unique meaning.''

Widdowson's objective as apparent in his approach is no doubt laudable. But the

approach in itself gives rise to certain problems: Is it necessary to compare the 7,

given literary text with texts similar to it from conventional discourse to bring out - the essential nature of its communication? Can' t a teacher exploit the given text in

232

such a way thar i t brings out what it is that is distinctive about its mode of commu-

nication as opposed to thar of conventional discourse and provide at the same time

some access to its interpretation? In other words, can' t we think of the given text

simultaneously as an isolated piece of writing as well as a representative instance

ot'how literary descriptions are made. In the rest of this chapter we would like to

examine how we can improve upon Widdowson's methodology which, as it stands,

is nor entirely satisfactory for this reason. Widdowson himself admits about his

methodology:

Our task is to make problematic what at first sight seems simple, to get

the learner to explore the passage in order to establish principles of

understanding which can then be applied to a wider range of literary

discourse. l 3

In fact what we would like to do in a classroom is just the opposite: to make less

problematic what at first sight seems difficult.

The first thing to examine is whether it is theoretically possible to integrate a

discussion on discourse functions into the literary analysis of a text. This takes us

to the features of literary communication discussed already in chapter four. We

found that what is crucial to the character of literature is the organisation of its

language into patterns over and above those required by the actual language sys-

tem. It was also suggested that the effect of this patterning is to create acts of

cornmunicat~on which are self-contained units, independent of a social context and

expressive of a reality other than that which is sanctioned by convention. Literary

discourse is independent of normal interaction, has no links with any preceding

d ~ s c o u r s e and anticipates no subsequent act ivi ty. I t s in te rp re ta t ion does

133

nut depend on our recognition of the role of the sender or our own role as re-

ceiver. Thus i t becomes evident that literature must of its nature be deviant as

discourse a l t h o u ~ h i t need not be deviant as linguistic data. This observation is of

crucial relevance to our proposed methodology in teaching literature:

(i) If literature must of its nature be deviant as discourse, every literary text is

bound to testify to this deviance and no literary text can be an exception to it.

(ii) Since deviance in literary communication can be only a relative concept

and not absolute. i t is possible to judge it against the conventions, rules, and

expectations normal to ordinary types of discourse. As such, aflalysis of how a

literary text violates the rules and conventions typical of normal discourse situa-

tions is bound to

(a) reinforce the learner's already existing awareness about the normal

communicative situation and its nature,

(b) reveal to him what can be expected of in literary discourse, in contrast

to normal discourse. and develop an insight into its nature, and

(c) provide the learner with direct accessibility into a literary text. Faced

with an unknown text, it gives him a starting point, a direction and a n orientation

to analysis. It is by no means uncommon to be confused about where to bezin with

in literary e ~ p l o r a r i o n . ' ~ Widdowson himself relates to this predicament a t the

outset of attempting an interpretation for Wilfred Owen's "Futility ":

How do we first set about discovering the patterns of language and real-

ity which are presented in this poem? There is no right order of proce-

dure; the technique is to pick on features in the text which appeal to

first impression as unusual or striking in some way and then explore

their ramifications. 15

The features in the poem which Widdowson intuitively feels as "striking and unu-

sual" and therefore important for interpretation infact result from the text's viola-

tion of the code for normal communication.

(iii) If literary expression necessarily involves the breaking of conventions

normal to ordinary language use, it becomes obligatory on its part to create new

conventions in turn. Being cut off from one link, it has to form others. One might

s ;~y, then. that it is the breaking of code patterns that prepares the way for the

creation of language patterns in context which bestow on linguistic elements mean-

ings other than they have in the language code. The deviant nature of literature as

discourse thus leads to the creation of Ianguage patterns in context within a given

text and contributes to its interpretation.

The above discussion makes i t clear that theoretically it is possible to inte-

grate into the individual analysis of a given literary text an awareness of how - discourses function. The way the deviant nature of literature as discourse brings

this about is illustrated below:

F1g.6 .2

Pedagogical Relevance of the Deviant Nature of Literature as Discourse

Reinforces Analysis of Paves the

the learner's the deviant way for the

knowledge of < . . . . . . . . nature of --------- > learner's

the language code literature as recognition of

and its use as well discourse language patterns

as the distinctiveness

ot conventional

discourse

and the

distinctiveness

of literary discourse

Having enquired in some detail into the theoretical feasibility of our proposed

methodology. let us now evaluate how it works in practice. We will once again

take up Robert Frost 's "Dust of Snow" which has already been used as a touch-

stone for the critical valuation of the methodologies offered by dualists, and by

Leech and Short. Hence it is only proper that we should assess the present one

ayainst the same text. Further, this text by Robert Frost was also used by Widdowson

in chapter six of his Stylistics and the Teaching of Literature for exemplifying his

methodology and this gives us a unique opportunity to assess the relevance of the

modification we proposed on his theory.

In his analysis of Frost's poem'6, Widdowson concentrates only on the inter-

nal working of language within the text. He helps the learners recognise how the

li~lguistic elements in the poem take on special values in the context and thus

contributes to the total message which the discourse as a whole conveys. He does

not look upon the text as an overt means to highlight the features intrinsic to

ccnventional and literary modes of communication and the way in which one mode

236

of communication differs from the other. Whatever insights the learners gather

rszarding the discourse functions are only incidental to his consideration of the

s~ l~a l l e r scale internal working of language within the piece of discourse itself. He

eets the learners to identify the semantic link between 'c row' , 'dust ' , ' snow', and - 'hemlock tree' as they occur in association in the text and how it confers on them

a common notion of death which is considerably different from the individual

meanings they have in isolation in the language code. The comparison is thus

berween the meanings normally attributed to linguistic elements and the meanings

they assume in the particular context. Widdowson achieves his objective admira-

bly well with these prompt questions asked in succession:

Question 1 Using a dictionary if necessary, note down as many details about

the meanings of these words as possible:

crow dust snow hemlocktree

Question 2 Which of these terms are linked by

(a) having the same details?

(b) having details which are related in meaning?

Question 3 What does the event described in the first verse suFgest to the poet?

This procedure however is inadequate in the sense it does not lead the learners to

identify independently the linsistic items which possess the stylistic value for interpreta-

tlon. With respect to Frost's poem, for example, how can the learners recognise that the

first stanza is stylistically more important than the second, and that the noun phrases 'crow',

'dust', 'snow', and 'hemlock tree' therein are more relevant to interpretation than the rest?

To put it differently, how does the methodology lead the learners to locate the language

237

pattern contained in the text? Also, Widdowson's procedure is inadequate for it does not

exploit fully the potential contained in a literary work as a representative piece of literary

d~scourse. Apart from providing an insight into the patterning of language and how it leads

to interpretation, what else does this approach reveal to learners about the unique mode of

communication in literature and the way it differs from normal discourse?

It is this inadequacy apparent in Widdowson's method that prompts us to improve

upon it and make the learners look at the poem from a slightly different angle. We shall

begin with a question like this:

Question 1 Does this text (poem) appear to you as in some way similar to the

messages you receive through a telegram or a letter? How?

This question is meant to reveal to the learners that although the poem is not deviant as

linguistic data. it does violate some of the conventions we generally associate with ordinary

kinds of communication such as a telegram or a letter. The learners are llkely to respond

enthusiastically to such marked features in the text as its title, the metrical arrangement of

its lines. rhyme, and its division into stanzas inspite of their syntactic continuity. It will

however require some promptings from the teacher to make the learners recognise that

they are not personally familiar with Robert Frost (the sender of the poem / message)

though they are the receivers of his message at present. This observation will pave the way

for another prompt which can make them realise their doubtful status as addressees of the

message in spite of the fact that they are the receivers of it. The very.fact that they are not

personally related to the sender can be used to reveal to them that the poem does not arise

from any previous situation and that it does not anticipate any subsequent activity either

verbal or otherwise. Having thus made them infer the independence of the poem from its

immediate social context and the identity of the person who receives it, we can now proceed

to the next question.

238

Question 2 Do you think that it is Robert Frost's own experience that the poem

records? Why?

Having already revealed to the learners how the normally indivisible compound of

receiver1 addressee is dissolved in the poem, this question can now prime them to identify

a .;imilar dissolution in the senderladdresser relationship. There should be no difficulty,

given a certain amount of eliciting on the part of the teacher, in getting the learners to agree +.

that the first person pronoun in the poem need not correspond to the real self of the writer

at all but can relate to experiences which he imagines himself or another person undergo-

ing." It is not Frost who is doing the addressing and not the addresser who is doing the

sending.

It is the recognition of these larger scale differences between the two modes of com-

munication that prepares the learners for a different set of expectations in the literary text

and urges them to examine it more closely for meanings.18 With this awareness of how a

literary texr breaks the larger-scale conventions of normal communication, the learners can

further proceed to identiij, more specific and particular violations of convzntional commu-

nicative code in the text. A question like the following will help in this regard:

Question 3 Write out the poem as a sentence. Underline the part of the sentence

that causes in the poet a change of mood and makes him cheerful.

By encouraging the learners to compare their own text with the original one, the

tr~icher can prompt them to probe into the significance of the division in the poem into two

stanzas. The learners will not have much difficulty in recognising the division as represent-

ing the division between cause-effect relationship in the poem. The second stanza records

the effect for which the first stanza provides the cause. In case the learners experience

ilikficulty in comprehending the concept of cause- effect relationship, the teacher can em-

p l ~ I; prompt questions of the following kind to support the question above:

Question 3a Select a suitable word for the blank from the words given in the

bracket. [a flower, blood, a bird]

The sight of ......... .. ..... gave me a shudder

A discuss~on on the suitability of a particular choice in the blank will necessarily

involve a discussion on its capacity to generate sufficient 'cause' to the effect ('shudder')

rcported in the predicate part of the sentence. This cannot be otherwise for the choices

supplied have paradigmatic equivalence in the context only syntactically and not semanti-

cally. The next questlon focuses on a related aspect of the same issue:

Question 4 Can you suggest an alternative 'cause' that could have brought about

the same effect in the poet's mood but more effectively. Defend

your answer.

It is expected that the exercise will inspire the learners to go in search of more con-

crete and potent reasons (like 'a visit from my friend', 'the celebration of my birthday')

which they can substitute for the poet's own. The teacher can exploit the ensuing discus-

hion in such a way that it will reinforce the learners' already existing awareness about

cause-effect relationship in normal communication and at the same time reveal to them how

the poem differs in this respect from the conventional mode of expression.

Question 5 If so what could have prompted the poet to retain the incident (the

speaker's encounter with the bird) in the poem?

Th~s question is intended to arouse dispute and initiate discussion on the issue. The

teacher should be prepared to expect answers ranging from 'it is more poetic', to 'it is

symbolic' to 'it is ambiguous' from his learners. What is important at this stage is not that

240

their observations ditfer from one another, but that they have come to identify the first

stanza as interpretatively more significant for the poem.

Once the learners recognise the stylistic significance of the first stanza, the teacher can

lead them to locate and analyse the language pattern it embodies and bring out its commu-

n~cative potential for the poem as a whole. From this stage onwards, the analysis is prima-

rily concerned with the patterning of language by semantic links between the individual

lexical items in the first stanza and how it contributes to interpretation. This is exactly what

N'iddowson does superbly with his own methodology and since it has already been repro-

duced in this chapter, there is no reievance for further discussion on it.

The deviance in Frost's poem as discourse from the normal mode of communication is

thus as striking as its non-deviance from the rules of language code as linguistic data. The

poem dispenses with the normally indispensable semantic link between cause and its effect

in communication. It is the violation of this normal communicative convention that leads

on the one hand to our identification of its first stanza as stylistically more important for

interpretation. and on the other hand to our recognition of its alternative language pattern

in the context by semantic links. Having dissolved one semantic link in the code, the writer

is obliged to create another semantic link in the context. He compensates for the breaking

oi the semantic connection between cause and effect by creating in the place of the former

another semantic link. unconventional and uniquely personal as it is. between crow, snow,

dust, and hemlock tree by organising them in association and reinforcing the connection

between them by rhyme. The literary artist thus reverses the normal principles of language

structure and use. making distinct what is normally combined and combining what is

normally distinct. It is in this habitual deviation of a literary writer from the conventions of

normal lanzuage use that an approach to the teaching of literature can be built up. Besides

241

prt)viding learners direct accessibility into the analysis of a text and developing in them

some kind of analytic strategy for interpretation of literary works in general, such an ap-

proach can reveal to them the essential nature of communication in literary texts as opposed

to that in conventional mode. thereby leading to reinforce their practical command over the

latter. This is what makes the approach and the methodoiogy based on it particularly useful

to ESL classes and justifies the use of literature in teaching language.

We recognised that the proposed methodology is especially effective to get into a

poem initially and locate where its stylistic potential lies. How it works in relation to

another instance of literary discourse, W.C.William's "This is Just to Say ", can now be

examined.

I have eaten

the plums

that were in

the icebox

and which

you were probably

saving

for breakfast

Forgive me

they were delicious

SO sweet

and so coldI9

(1-12)

242

The poem is dev~ant as communication against the standards of normal discourse. Its

imperative 'Forgive me' 1s not syntactically or semantically related to the rest of the poem.

Syntactically. the imperative is not provided with a cohesive link either with the preceding

or the succeed~ng parts of the discourse. Semantically, the placing of the imperative in the

third stanza along wirh the sensuous attractions the plums have for the speaker ('they were

delicious, so sweet, and so cold') defeats our conventional expectation that the concept of

forgiveness is associated with wrong- doing and a sense of guilt consequent upon it. As can

be seen in the substitution table below,

items in column (c) have paradigmatic equivalence in that any of its choices can be com-

bined with the items in columns (A) and (B) on the syntagmatic axis to form a structurally

complete sentence. But items in column (c) have paradigmatic equivalence only syntacti-

cally, and not semantically. Whereas the first three items provide sufficient ground for

eating the plums by highlighting their qualities or attractions, the fourth item makes a

onco committal sratement regarding their location, and the fifth element foregrounds the

negative and an undesirable feature of the plums by focusing on who possesses them. The

dotted lines in column (c) show this semantic categorisation among the items. But the poetic

(A)

I have eaten the plums

(B)

that

(which)

(0

were delicious

(were) so sweet

(were) so cold

-----------------

were in the icebox

you were probably saving for breakfast

243

context attributes semantic equivalence on all the items alike by making them parallel to

one another in the text. The language pattern in the poem thus deprives the fifth element

('you were probably saving for breakfast') of the sense of wrong-doing and guilt which it

carries conventionally in the language code and attributes on it a different value. This

unconventional reality the poem represents is further strengthened by the positioning of

the imperative 'Forgive me' in the text: that the speaker is obliged to ask for forgiveness

is a clear indication that he is conscious of the social tradition behind him, but the fact that

forgiveness is not linked cohesively with the first two stanzas which admit the wrong-doing

shows his rejection of this tradition, and at the same time that it is not related syntactically

to the lines expressing the sensuous attractions the plums have for him but only positioned

in close approximity to them in the third stanza reveals the equivocation in the speaker's

stand. Socially, the speaker is conscious of the obligations of tradition on him; personally,

he prefers to reject it but remains uncertain about the new prospects.

This uncertainty in the speaker's attitude which the poem expresses so powerfully

cannot by its nature be described or explained by any single interpretation. It is for this

reason that the poem does not yield to paraphrase or summary either: to do so is to recast its

essential ambiguity into the definite shape of conventional statement. A method preferable,

therefore, to these conventional methods of teaching is the one that aims at developing in the

learners an awareness of how the poem communicates by relating it to normal uses of

language. A question of the following kind invites the learner to participate in this discov-

ery of meanings:

Question Write out the poem as a single sentence.

This exercise w~l l require the learners to connect the imperative 'Forgive me' with the

lints in the poem that admit the wrong-doing (eating the plums), and also relate the adjectives

24.1

'delicious', 'sweet', and 'cold' directly with the noun they qualify (the plums). One of the

probable versions thr learners can produce is: Forgive me for I have eaten the delicious,

siLret and cold plums thd were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for

breakfast.

A discussion on the differences between the original text of the poem and its student-

version can reveal to the learners how and where the literary writer breaks the conventions

normal to ordinary language use and how it contributes to the reality he is trying to

express. The learner will come to identify inconclusiveness and ambiguity as essential

aspects of literary communication and how in this particular poem under consideration it

results from the absence of cohesive links in its third stanza. This will serve to reinforce his

already existing awareness about cohesive links and their relevance to communication.

Once again it is evident how an examination of the deviant nature of literature as

discourse can be pedagogically and linguistically beneficial in a literature class. With more

elicitation questions that focus on the patterning of language in particular, it is possible to

m:ike the learners infer the kind of information on the poem which is given already.

Two more examples of literary discourse - one a poem and another a prose passage -

shall be examined in full to bring out the benefits the proposed methodology confers on

learners of literature. Let us look at a poem first.

THE RED WHEELBARROW

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens '' (1-81

Question 1 Is this poem similar to a proverb? Why?

This question directs the learners' attention to the general features of the poem as a

mode of literary communication in contrast to those in a proverb, a representative piece of

normal discourse with which they are familiar. It is possible that they will recognise the

similarity in terms of the length of the poem (distinctly short), its tense (simple present that

can confer historic validity to a statement as general truth), and in the absence of personal

pronouns in it. The dissimilarities may be apparent in having a title, metrical arrangement

of lines, reference to the writer, and in the absence of capitalisation and punctuation.

Besides making the learners aware of the difference between the two modes of communi-

cation. the exercise is also likely to develop in them expectation of condensed information

in the text, as can be expected from a proverb.

From the general conventions. we can now proceed to examine the specific linguistic

-res in the poem. starting with the following exercise.

Question 2 Can you supply appropriate words to the blank spaces?

This will encourage the learners to provide answers such as:

[A1

Growth depends upon nourishment.

Success depends upon hardwork and ambition.

Health depends upon food and exercise.

[Bl

A child depends upon its parents for education,

A writer depends upon his pen for a living.

It will serve to remind the learners of what they already know about the use of the verb

'depend' in normal discourse. The linguistic elements preceding and succeeding this verb

requires logical and semantic relationship between them as directly as in the examples in

[A], or indirectly as in the examples in [B]. What is important is that the relationship

between the two should be made explicit so that the message a sender transmits to his

addressee shall communicate effectively. Having helped the learners recall their grammati-

cal knowled_ge about the use of the verb 'depend' in normal expressions, they can be

prompred to examine in detail its use in the literary text as follows:

Question 3 Identify in the poem parts which are similar to the parts of the

sentence given below:

Success I depends upon I hardwork and ambition.

This will require the learners to provide the information as follows:

A comparison between the two examples in the table above will reveal the inexplicitness

hard work and ambition.

a red wheelbarrow . . . chickens.

Success depends upon

So much depends upon

247

and indefiniteness in the linguistic elements which precede and succeed the verb 'depend'

in the poem. Though 'success', 'hardwork', and 'ambition' are abstract concepts, the

ordinary message comprising these words in the first example is still explicit since what the

message conveys is a conventional idea about conventional reality to which the reader is

used by way of his bringing up in the world. Such extratextual informarion is not, however,

accessible to a reader of literary text who has to realise the significance of the relationship

berween 'wheelbarrow' and 'chickens' by relating them to the discourse as a whole as

linguistic data. In short the reader of the poem is confused as to what the messa2e conveys

inspite of his grammatical knowledge of the verb 'depend' and his identification of both

'wheelbarrow' and 'chickens' as concrete objects. Thus the comparison between the exam-

ples in the table above becomes a valuable lesson for the students of literature on the nature

of both literary and ordinary discourses.

Question 4 On what does 'so much' depend?

The purpose of this question is to put the focus further on the inconclusiveness arising

out of the juxtaposition of the wheelbarrow and the chickens in the text. The learners are

likely to respond enthusiastically saying that 'so much' depends upon 'a wheelbarrow' and

'the chickens' But an additional prompt-question like 'what do wheelbarrow and chickens

stand for'?' will make them realise that such information cannot be located readily from the

poem but that it has to be inferred from the relation between linguistic elements in the

context. This will pave the way for their examining this part of the poem in -greater depth.

Having led the learners to identify the part of the poem that holds the stylistic potential for

interpretation2' the next step is to focus their attention on the language pattern created and

its interpretation.

Question 5 Write out the poem as a simple sentence.

Faced with this question, the learners will have to concentrate on the reduced relative

c1;iuse ([which is] slared with rain water) in the poem and its transformation into either a

phrase or a non- finite clause". Either way the learners will realise that the noun phrase

'rain water' is grammatically subordinated to 'wheelbarrow' in spite of its graphological

prominence in the text of the poem. The focus of the poem falls entirely on ' a red wheel-

barrow' and 'the white chickens' which form part of the main clause and are juxtaposed.

With the learners' attention centred on these phrases, we move on to the other questions:

Question 6 Identify from the text as many similarities as possible between 'wheel

barrow' and 'chickens'. You may also discuss with your friends.

Question 7 Now, identify the differences existing between the wheelbarrow and

the chickens in the text.

With additional promptings, which will be needed in all probability, the learners can

be encouraged to note down the similarities and differences in a manner that will yield easy

comparison between them. The format may look like:

a. Both wheelbarrow and But the focus falls on

chickens form part of noun wheelbarrow as it is directly related

phrases which are juxtaposed to the verlb, modified by a clause unlike

and which have the same strucrure in 'chickens', and also mentioned in the

(determiner +adjective phrase +noun) title.

b. Each forms part of a prepositional But whereas the preposition 'upon'

phrase - (upon a red wheelbarrow) and identifies the direct relation between the

(beside the white chickens)

. Both wheelbarrow and chickens

function as heads of their respective

noun phrases.

249

cause anticipated by the verb and wheel

barrow, 'beside' simply shows the prox-

imity of the chickens to the wheelbarrow.

But one is singular, the other is

plural in number.

d . The phrases involving wheelbarrow But wheelbarrow is inanimate

and chickens function as objects of whereas chickens are animate.

prepositions 'upon' and 'beside' respectively.

e. Both are pre-modified

1. The structure of pre-modification

1s the same in both (determiner+

adjective phrase)

But wheelbarrow alone is post-

modified.

But the pre-modifiers of

wheelbarrow and chickens show semantic

differences between them.

a - the

(indefinite) (definite)

red - white

'The teacher will need prompt questions especially to bring out the semantic differences

between red and white, or those between wheelbarrow and chickens. Using a dictionary

may prove to be very helpful to get insight into the connotative meanings of these words.

It will also provide an opportunity to the teachers of ESL courses to link their language

lessons (say, how to use a dictionary, or a discussion on the differences between connotative

and denotative meanrngs of words) with literature teaching

Question 8 What kind of experience does the poem suggest?

The scope of t h ~ s discussion may look open-ended but it is in fact restricted by the

observations the learners made in response to the questions put before. To begin with, the

learners may point to the contrast between the wheelbarrow and the chickens. This observa-

tlon is in itself commendable. With a further prompt like 'But, is there only difference

between them'? ', the learners will be persuaded to recall the same environment these

objects share - both positionally and structurally in the poem. This may lead to their

recognition that, probably, the poet focuses on the contrast between things which share the

same context and exist side by side. Just as the similar structural features underlying the

'wheelbarrow' and the 'chickens' help to highlight the contrast between them, the same

environment that the objects share may help us to view them in sharper contrast.

Question 9 Has the experience the poem suggests a universal significance? Or

is it only a personal one?

This question relates the concluding part of this analysis to its beginning and reminds

the learners of the similarities they identified between the poem and proverbs in general as

modes of communication. With some help the learners t ~ i l l realise the communicative

potential of the following textual features in the poem:

- the use of an indefinite noun phrase ('so much') in the subject position instead of a

specific description.

- the use of simple present instead of the past

- reference to wheelbarrow in the text with an indefinite article instead of a definite

article

- absence of personal pronouns in the poem

and the relevance they have for the interpretation of the message as universally valid. On a

iarzer scale, the contrast between the wheelbarrow and the chickens sharing the same con-

text may signify the contrast between motion and stillness or that between blemish and

purity or even suggest the irony in modem man's existenmce.

It is possible that one gets sceptical about the linguistic benefits the questions eight and

nine can confer on ESL learners for these questions focus mainly on aspects of literary

interpretation. However these exercises can be defended on the following grounds. By en-

quiring into the way a literary text deviates from the rules and conventions expected of in

normal modes of communication and how these deviatic~ns contribute to the message the

text seeks to convey, these exercises affirm the essential nature of literature as discourse as

opposed to the linguists' view of it merely as linguistic data. It tells the ESL learner that a

literary text is also a kind of language use and a kind of communication like any other

conventional mode of discourse and hence is comparable to them. Secondly, the learners

also become aware of what they can expect in a literary text: 'a wheelbarrow' or 'the

chickens' in it need not always remain the same; they may get a value other than the

signification they have in the language code by virtue of their inclusion in the language

patterns created. This can probably explain the figurative mode of its communication to an

ESL learner. Thirdly, since the interpretation of a literary text necessarily involves corre-

lating the meanings of linguistic items as elements in the language code with the meanings

they take on in the context in which they occur, exercises in literary interpretation can

expose the learners to this correlating procedure (discussed already in 4.5.1, ii) and give

them insight into its working. The development of this correlating procedure, being essen-

tial for the production and reception of any discourse, becomes highly desirable for

language !earners, and especially for ESL learners

It is true that all this analysis is not necessary to appreciate a poem subjectively, but to

explain it to a class it is very much needed. A stylistic approach to the teaching of literature

does not encourage the learners to take their teachers' critical comments on faith; rather, it

helps them to develop their own reading strategy for literature and interpret texts on the

basis of the analytical data before them. In this process of analysis, their linguistic as well

as literary experience gets vastly enriched, and literature no longer appears to be an ab-

straction to be handled only by those with a superior intellect. With these concluding re-

marks we may now move on to the following short story by ~ e m i n ~ w a ~ " a n d evaluate how

the proposed methodology stands in relation to this prose text:

They shot the six cabinet ministers at half past six in the morning against the

wall of a hospital. There were pools of water in the courtyard. The were wet

dead leaves on the paving of the courtyard. It rained hard. All the shutters of the

hospital were nailed shut. One of the ministers was sick with typhoid. Two

soldiers carried him downstairs and out into the rain. They tried to hold him up

against the wall but he sat down in a puddle of water. The other five stood very

quietly against the wall. Finally the officer told the soldiers it was no good

trying to make him stand up. When they fired the first volley he was sitting

down in the water with his head on his knees.

Hemingway's text is not deviant from the rules of the language code but it is deviant as

discourse from the accepted conventions of its normal use. To begin with, it defeats the

reader's expectations of a conventional opening:

They shot the six cabinet ministers at half past six in the morning against the

wall of a hospital.

213

The sender of the messase takes for granted the reader's knowledge of the identities of the

persons referred to by the pronoun 'they' and by the definite article 'the' in the phrase 'the

six cabinet ministers'". With this assumption, it seems, the sender proceeds to concentrate

on ' the new information' about the action such as its time and place. Further, the probable

cause for the action (shooting the cabinet ministers) and its possible effects are not revealed

anywhere in the text. This withholding of information is especially striking in the case of a

Y ~ I - b like 'shoot' which, unlike other transitive verbs of the kind 'see' and 'watch', normally

calls for a sufficient cause for the action and prepares for a discussion of its consequent

developments. In short, much of the basic and normally expected information is lacking:

who shot? who were shot at? why were they shot at? what happened after shooting?

In conventional communication, if a speaker happens to withhold in the beginning a

particular aspect of the message he is seeking to convey, it can be attributed to any of these

reasons:

(i) It is possible that both the sender and the receiver are already aware of this aspect

from their previous interaction and that it is supefluous to make a reference to it again in

the context.

(ii) It is likely that the relevant information is yet to be found out and that it will be

disclosed to the addressee in due course, in one of their subsequent interactions.

(iii) The information the speaker withholds is absolutely irrelevant in the context and

inconsequential to the addressee.

(iv) It is also probable that the information is revealed cataphorically in the message.

BUL Herningway's text. being an instance of literary mode of communication, deprives its

receiver of the benefits of both previous and subsequent interaction with its sender

254

(Hemingway). .As for the nature of information, it is absolutely relevant in the context of

death since this topic by its nature anticipates the revelation of the initiator as well as the

receiver of the action, its cause as well as its effect. This leaves the reader with the fourth

option and the resultant expectation of finding out the missing information in the subse-

quent parts of the text. But what the reader finds immediately after the opening sentence of

the text is a further description of the setting of action with its detailed reference to the pools

of water, dead leaves on the pavement, incessant rain and closed shutters of the hospital.

There were pools of water in the courtyard. There were wet dead leaves on the

paving of the courtyard. It rained hard. All the shutters of the hospital were

nailed shut

The fact that this four-sentence long descriptive frame appears in a text which is relatively

very short (only eleven sentences long) and at a place where the reader normally expects a

reference to the cause of the action or its instigator or both makes the description deviant

and stylistically significant for interpretation. Its subsequent six- sentence long reference to

the sickness of one of the six ministers who constitute the target (for shooting) becomes

again deviant against the normal expectations of conventional communication. Instead of

giv~ng fonvard momentum to the story by focusing on its relevant aspects, it concentrates

on .in aspect peripheral to the main action and causes the story move in a circle. The text

ends where it begins. Again, the cataphoric reference to the 'soldiers' and the 'officer' in

the texr is inadequate since it serves to reveal only the official identity of the agents carrying

our the action and not the instigator of the action himself. Thus the reader's expectation of

finding our the missing information caraphorically in the text gets defeated. This makes the

text necessarily incohesi~e '~ and therefore deviant from the conventions of normal expres-

sion.

255

This deviance in the text as discourse has some important implications for the learners

of literature:

(i) It reveals to the learner the parts of the text which possess stylistic potential for

interpretation.

(ii) It leads him to expect in the deviant parts a unique patterning of language over and

above that required by the language system.

(iii) It even helps him to predict what the probable outcome of the language patterning

wlil be: the artist will somehow try to justify his deviation from the norm and this in turn

will contribute to the uniqueness of his vision.

(iv) Since deviance in a literary text is recognised in relation to the accepted norms of

conventional expression, the identification of the deviance in itself will make the learner

aware of the differences between the two modes of communication. On the one hand, it

gives him insight into the way literature communicates; on the other, it reinforces his al-

re.~dy existing knowledge about the language system.

It is these benefits that the proposed methodology aspires to confer on the learners of

literature by devising exercises of the following kind:

Question 1 One of Hemingway's short stories begins with this sentence: "They

shor the six cabinet ministers at half past six in the morning against

the wall of a hospital." The rest of its sentences are given below in

a jumbled order. Arrange them under the opening sentence in the

order you prefer so as to produce a relatively satisfactory sequence.

You may work in groups of five. Show your preferred

order with the help of the sentence numbers

1 It rained hard. 2 They tried to hold him up against the wall but

he sat down in a puddle of water. 3 All the shutters of the hospital

were nailed shut. 4 There were pools of water in the court yard.

5 When they fired the first volley he was sitting down in the water

with his head on his knees. 6 The other five stood very quietly

against the wall. 7 There were wet dead leaves on the paving of the

courtyard. 8 Finally the officer told the soldiers it was no good

trying to make him stand up. 9 Two soldiers carried him downstairs

and out into the rain. 10 One of the ministers was sick with

typhoid.

This is not an exercise in creative writing; as such, it aims at making the learners

experience the incohesiveness of the text's organisation and not at inspiring them to recre-

are the original Hemingway text. It will be interesting to note where the learners will

incorporate the descriptive frame of the original

There were pools of water in the courtyard. There were wet dead leaves on the

paving of the courtyard. It rained hard.

in their own textual version. There shall be much disagreement and confusion on the issue.

There is little chance that the learners will retain the three sentences of the descriptive

fume (quoted above) as such and in that order and position in their versions. A comparison

of their texts with the original one will trigger off a useful discussion that will serve to

reinforce their own knowledge about cohesiveness in texts and highlight the deviation in

Hemingway text from the conventions of textual organisation they are familiar with. Once

257

the learners identify the incongruity in the original text, the teacher shall proceed to the next

question. It may be noted that the assignment of groupwork and the individual numbers to

the jumbled sentences will help to save much of the precious class time and that the former

in particular will limir considerably the number of learner- response^.'^

Question 2 "There were pools of water in the courtyard. There were wet dead

leaves on the paving of the courtyard. It rained hard."

Combine these sentences into one sentence.

There may be individual variations between answers, but all will necessarily demon-

strate cause effect (pools of waterldead leaves -raining) relationship.

As a result of rain there were pools of water and wet dead leaves in the coun-

yard.

There were pools of water in the courtyard and wet dead leaves on its paving due

to rain.

Effecting a comparison between the original passage and the students' transformed version

of it, the teacher can easily reveal how the writer leaves inexplicit the cause-effect relation-

ship and even reverses the normal order by making the effect precede the cause in the

description. With some simple promptings like

What does 'it ' in "It rained hard" stand for?

the learners may be also helped to recall their grammatical knowledge about dummy sub-

jects (there. it) which are in evidence in the passage in its three sentences in a row. This

presents the teacher with a unique opportunity to link his language-unit with the literarure

lesson and emphasise the complementary nature of the relationship between the two. The

258

learner's awareness of dummy subjects as devoid of any reference value and their role in

sentences purely as formal requirements of the grammar of English can be extended to his

rzcognition of their ~mpersonal nature. These observations are likely to give the learners

some insight into the strategy of the writer: he seems to be recording the observable details

around him as they exist. without any effort on his part to make explicit the relationship

berween them or interpret them. Having thus enabled the learners to recognise the stylistic

potential of the three parallel sentences constituting the passage, the teacher may lead the

learners to the next question

Question 3 Compare the first sentence of the story " They shot the six cabinet

ministers at half past six in the morning against the wall of a

hospital. "

with the passage discussed above (in question 2). Are they

connected in any way?

With short elicitation questions, the learners can be encouraged to note that both the

opening sentence and its subsequent three-sentence long descriptive frame have

(i) subject words [they, there (twice), it] devoid of reference value

(ii) either an action (shooting) devoid of cause, or inexplicit cause-effect relationship

(pools of waterlwet dead leaves - raining) and

(iii) abundance of observable details (six cabinet ministers, at half-past six, in the morn-

ing, against the wall, the wall of a hospital, pools of water, courtyard, paving of the court-

yard. wet dead leaves, ralning hard) in sharp contrast to the dearth of logical connections

aad value judgements. It IS likely that some learners will note the symbolic value of "dead

leaves" in the context and this can be used by the teacher to initiate a discussion on the

259

suggestive \slues of the phrases "pools of water" (which will soon turn into pools of blood),

"rainin: hard" (a symbol of disaster), and "wet dead leaves" and their semantic links with

death reported in the opening sentence. Learners gradually develop an insight into the way

literature communiccites: details which are incohesive and therefore deviant against the

standards of normal communication may become non-deviant and cohesive in literary texts

aild contribute significantly to meaning with the help of the language patterns created in

them.

Question 4 Now, examine if the kind of observations you arrived at are

applicable to the sentence:

"All the shutters of the hospital were nailed shut"

The learners will realise it as significant that the writer repeatedly restricts himself to the

same pattern: he painstakingly records the observable, statistical details about the closing of

the shutters ("all" the shutters, not the shutters; "nailed" shut, not shut) but remains non-

committal about its actors, cause, and its effect. Whereas in the previous examples, the

subject positions are filled with dummy subjects devoid of reference value, in the sentence

under discussion the very reference to the logical subject is avoided with the help of the

stylistic mechanism of passivisation. Further, the image of death is once again evoked by

the expression "nailed" which suggests crucifixion.

With the students thus getting progressively familiar with the patterning of language in

the pans which were originally identified as deviant, the teacher can now draw their atten-

tion to the analysis of another such part occurring towards the end of the story.

Question 5 Read once again the part of the story where the sick minister is

260

mentioned. Do you think that it is relevant to the story? Justify your

answer

In effect this exercise will prompt the learners to discuss how far the patterning of

language and the observations consequent upon it are retained in the narrative featuring the

sick minister. The learners will readily recognise the complete detachment and disinterest-

edness with which the officer and the soldiers carry out the duty assigned to them. In their

official capacity as executors, the soldiers are not expected to enquire into the personal

identity of their targets, the state of their health, and the crimes they committed. Analysis of

tne narrative featuring the sick minister and his execution will thus help the learners broaden

their awareness of the reality the writer is trying to depict: it is a reality where people are

depersonalised and referred to as 'they1, 'one of the ministers', 'two soldiers', 'the other

five', and 'the officer' and where a person is shot at when he is sick and "sitting down in the

water with his head on his knees". Thus the significance of the sick minister's experience in

the story is that it highlights the detached and impersonal aspects of the reality the writer is

conveying.

Question 6 Can you possibly find a description such as this in a personal letter?

Why?

This is intended to initiate a discussion on the characteristic features of Hemingway's

text. What is tested is not the learners' competence in the modes of personal correspond-

ence but their ability to detect the text's objectivity and impersonality which make it stand

out from the rest of personal write-ups.

Question 7 What h d of reality does the story relate as a whole?

This will focus on the learner's ability to correlate the meanings of the key linguistic

261

elements in the context of the text with the meanings they have in the language system.

Conventionally. death and sickness as concepts merit serious and personal consideration,

ekpect human sentiments and feelings, demand respectable and dignified treatment, and

a~~ticipate cmse and effect. Hemingway's text defeates these conventional expectations of

a reader, and in doing so gives expression to an alternative reality where violation rather

than obsenance of this code becomes the norm. What is significant is not that such a reality

corresponds to that of a totalitarian regime but that it embodies the personal and unique

vision of an artist.

There is no denying the fact that literary discourse is characterised by the creation of

unique language patterns and that its linguistic items contract special values as elements in

these created patterns. It is also evident that the learners' understanding of literary texts

depends on their recognising these patterns of linguistic organisation. The stylistic concepts

exemplifying some of these key language patterns which the literary writers devise to

convey their unique, personal vision have also been discussed at length in chapter five. But

il :an be noted that no overt reference was made to these stylistic concepts or the language

patterns they embody in the exercises specially designed as part of the proposed teaching

methodolo~y. The proposed stylistic methodology for the teaching of literature does not

consider it as essential that an ESL learner at the under-graduate level should be able to

identify a partrcular language effect by its technical nomenclature and that he should be

proficient snough in its theoretical specifications. What is expected of him is only a general

familiarin- with the way language is patterned in literary works and how it contributes to the

communiurive potential of the language he is actively engaged in learning. It is for this

reason thz the methodology has carefully avoided formal exercises like

Question Discuss the effect of parallelism as a stylistic technique in W.C.

Willinm's "The Red Wheelbarrow".

Question Analyse how the contrasting colours red and white form a syntactic

couple in "The Red Wheelbarrow"

and resorted to elicitation questions which are informal, indirect and free from linguistic

terminolog:

Question Write out the poem as a simple sentence

Question Now, identify the differences existing between the wheelbanow and

the chickens in the text. You may also discuss with your friends.

Even when the exercises make use of technical terms like 'simple sentence', 'dummy sub-

jects', 'comotatlon', or 'denotation', it is made sure that the learners are already familiar

wlth them from their exposure to formal grammar in the language lessons. This in turn

serves to esrablish a link between language and literature teaching, a link which a stylistic

approach to literature naturally establishes.

This chapter has thus been primarily concerned with the methodological issue of how

one might u lde students towards a practical strategy for literary interpretation based on

e\:~dence ahose discovery they can actively participate in, and at the same time how to give

them insight into the structure of English language and how it operates in use. It has never

been the aim to specify a precise set of procedures for the definitive interpretation of texts

bu: to exemplify an approach to analysis that focuses on the nature of literature as discourse.

As a sysrem of communlcatlon, literature has points of similarity as well as dissimilarity

263

w~th the conventioniii mode of communication. They are similar in that both are basically

kinds of language use, both use the same resources of the language code, and both are

inrerpreted by correlating code with context. But the way language is patterned in literary

discourse makes its mode of expression an extension of the way language is used in ordi-

nary discourse, makes its correlating procedure of matching code and context meanings

more overt and self-conscious, and makes its communication self-contained and suggestive

of a reality other than that which is communicable by conventional uses of the language

code. Whereas the common ground between the two modes of communication justifies the

use of literature in language teaching and validates the use of comparative procedure as a

pedagogical tool in their studies. it is the deviant nature of literature as discourse that paves

the way for the identification of stylistic potential and the patterning of language in a literary

text.

Notes

' The term 'conventional mode of communication' is too general to afford a

specific definition. i t is used in the text of this thesis with special reference to

ESL situation. It includes an ESL learner's exposure to the language use both

inside and outside the class, excluding, however, the expressions like slang on

the one hand and the literary mode of communication on the other

' Robert Fros t , "Dust of Snow," American Literature I890 - 196.5: An

Anthology, ed. Egbert S.Oliver (New Delhi: Eurasia, 1967) 405.

' A paraphrase or a summary can capture only 'what ' a poem communicates

(conceptual content), not 'how' it communicates. Since a n understanding of what

a poem communicates necessarily involves an insight into how it communicates,

teaching methods ~nvolving paraphrase and summary become by their nature

v~rtually irrelevant to the literary mode of communication.

Stylistc dualism is founded on the concept of paraphrase. A stylistic choice

has both a paraphrasable 'sense' and 'stylistic value'. They together constitute the

total significance of the choice.

Sense + Stylistic value = (total) significance

Dualists assume that it is possible to focus on the stylistic value of a text by

separating sense from it through paraphrase.

G. Leech, and M.H. Short, Style in Fiction : A Linguistic Introduction to

English Fictional Prose (London: Longman, 1981)23.

Leech. and Short, style 139

265

6 At the under-graduate level, we are primarily concerned with stylistic variants

model as passages markedly foregrounded for their linguistic deviations are rarely

prescribed for learners at this stage

' Leech. and Short. Sryle 138.

Leech. and Short, Sryle 127.

Leech. and Short, Sryle 134

'O Leech. and Short, Sryle 134

" Widdowson. Srylisrics 86

l 2 Widdowson. Stylistics 102 - 103

" Widdowson. Srylisrics 87.

l4 The concept of philological circle developed by Spitzer testifies to this

indecisiveness. He argued that there is no logical starting point in the interpretation

c ~ f a literary work since a reader brings to it simultaneously two faculties: his

ability to respond to i t as a literary work and his ability to observe its language.

There is a cyclic motion whereby linguistic observation stimulates literary insight

and the literary insight in its turn stimulates further linguistic observation.

L. Spitzer, Linglristics and Literary History (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1948)19.

Fig. 6 .1

Philological Circle

Literary Appreciation

Seeking

aesthetic linguistic

function evidence

Linguistic Description

Source : Leech. and Short, Style 14.

l5 H.G. Widdowson, "Stylistics," Contemporary Criticism: An Anthology,

ed. V.S. Seturaman (Madras: Macmillan, 1989) 165.

l 6 Widdowson, Stylistics 104.

"In case the learners find it difficult to realise how the normally indivisible

compound of addresserisender stands dissolved in Frost 's poem, the teacher can

use a more obvious example where the addresser cannot function as a sender for it

( a corpse) is both [ - animate] and [ - human] as in the following:

I died for beauty, but was scarce

Adjusted in the tomb,

When one who died for truth was lain

In an adjoining room.

(1 -4)

267

Emile Dickinson. "1 Died for Beauty, but Was Scarce," American Literature

1890 -1965: An Anihoiopy, ed. Egbert S. Oliver (New Delhi: Eurasia, 1967) 324.

To Culler. t h ~ s explains why " a given prose sentence has different meanings

i f set down as a poem." A reader attributes a different sort of significance to a

group of senrences when he reads them as a poem than when he reads them as

something else.

Jonathan Culler. Srructuralist Poetics (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1975) 174.

l 9 W.C. Williams. " This is Just to Say," American Literature 1890.1965: An

Anthology, ed. Egbert S.Oliver (New Delhi : Eurasia, 1967) 570.

20 W.C. Williams, "The Red Wheelbarrow," American Literature 1890 - 1965:

Arz Anthology, ed. Egbert S.Oliver (New Delhi: Eurasia, 1967) 571.

"The fact that the predicate part of the poem (14 words) is disproportionately

longer than its subject part (2 words) also indicates the greater significance of the

former semantically. Further, the casual tone of the subject part with its abrupt

opening and its initial use of small letter ' s ' contrasts sharply with the formal

structuring of the predicate part. But the advisability of referring to these linguistic

aspects in an ESL class can be better left to the discretion of individual teachers.

22 This shows that the analysis of the poem can itself serve as a link between

literature and language teaching, a link which a stylistic approach to literature

naturally establishes

l 3 The Heminzway text quoted is one of the many vignettes peppered throughout

the In Our Tirne collection. These vignettes are untitled, short, italicised and are

268

ofren wedged between rne longer stories in the collection.

Ernesr Hemingway. In Our Time (New York: Boni and Liveright, 1925) 63.

'"t may be noted that this type of cataphoric reference is a common enough

characteristic of the opening of literary texts. and that it is one of the significant

ways in which literary discourse differs from the ordinary.

25 Together with this, there is a general absence of connectivity among the

sentences in the story. A wide variety of devices is available in English for

developing this type of cohesion, including additive (and), adversative (but) and

causal (so) conjunctions. However only one explicit signal is provided in the text

in the form of 'finally' and yet the sentence which it governs does not constitute

the last of the story

26 The group members were instructed to elect a spokesperson to summarise

and justify the observations agreed upon by the group as a whole.