Language in use for analysis. to make explicit statements about

to make explicit statements about

to be traced in the author’s outlook

to establish (set up) conflict

to give a perspective on the human misery of war

a compassionate and realistic observation of follies and foibles of humankind

to contain much thoughtful criticism

to show the clash between the values

a powerful call for

to organize the arguments for and against…

to resort to

by using the clues

to read between the lines

to be an advocate of

dominant impression

Themes – eternal/minor: life and death, good and evil, love, maternity, life struggle, human vices, war and peace, inequality, family life, education and upbringing, power of imagination, morbid power of money, multiculturalism

Basic conflict patterns: Man vs. Himself, Man vs. Man, Man vs. Society, Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Supernatural, Man vs. God, Man vs. Technology

The title is suggestive of …/ might well be applied to …

The ideas are in the perfect keeping with…

The author confines himself to …

The author explores the subject by presenting different viewpoints…

The ideas intrigue me.

The excerpt presents the view on…

The passage is crucial for comprehension of…

The information contained in the text helps to work out the meaning …/ is concerned with moral issues

The texts suggests that…

The novelist holds up to ridicule…

The main ideas are inferred…

When skimming the extract for general ideas…

This information is helpful to illustrate the point which…

The passage offers a wonderful example of the way in which the author renders…

The ideas are reproduced with great precision testifying to …

It seems to be a battlefield of conflicting ideas…

Based on perfect knowledge of all aspects of life …

The text brings forth the main points of the issues… / It brings to light…

The passage is also significant as it sets forth the conception of … / ideas illustrative of the gravest issues of the time / sums up two widely different viewpoints / throws light upon the most vital problems of …

The development of understanding is further on enhanced by…

Within the first lines…

It provides the opportunity for new insights into …

The message of the story is significant and original, not a cliché.

The theme grows out of the events in the story.

The information is helpful to illustrate the point that…

The information contained in the text enables to work out the thematic items…

The reader is made fully aware of the theme…

In the present case the subject-matter is unmistakably discerned in …

The effect of adequate understanding of problems is achieved by means of facts brimful of meaning.

The problems embedded in the text…

What comes as the matter of the biggest concern is …

The issues put forward by the author cover the areas …

The text covers / focuses on / tackles the problem of…

It is made quite clear that …

The effect is further enhanced by…

The story is of interest because…

The would-be solution to the problem is seen as the only way to true morality.

This excerpt allows scope for personal involvement and the opportunity to express the personal response to …

The author is concerned about moral issues…

The text aims at a psychological influence on the readers to convince them of the reality and authenticity of the described topic/subject

This is achieved by means of …/ by reference to events, personalities

It is a lively account of the circumstances and the factors which led to the development of …

The writer is basically describing…

This is an evident answer to the problem of…

This prose touches life at so many points that every reader will find what he/she alone wishes to discover.

The passage deals with… / focuses on…

The extract is aimed at acquainting the reader with some disputable problems of social / political / economic aspects of life.

1.4. AUTHOR’S TONE AND INTENT

There is a complex interaction between the author’s intention and the reader’s ability to decode it. While reading engages readers and holds their attention with well-made form and significant content, they are encouraged to accept the persuasive intent of the text – the author’s desire to get them to change our minds, accept a new idea, or perform an act. Being persuaded is a subtle process, intensely personal and often unpredictable, often accounted for experiences and feelings similar to those of central characters, or an argument one is open-minded about, finally because one wants his/her feelings and opinions reinforced.

Aesthetic responses are difficult to describe because they involve memories and sensations, personal and emotional reasons. They reveal the extent to which readers have taken part in making meaning of the literary work they encounter by opening themselves to it.

Sometimes the narrator’s opinion is made clear in a direct address to the reader; sometimes it emerges through the tone of the narrative, its attitude to the given subject (tone can be viewed as an expression of attitude). It suffices to look at the sentence structure (syntax) and word choice (diction) in order to figure out whether the passage is neutral (objective, explanatory, detached) or opinionated and emotional (subjective). If the text is clearly subjective, it is possible to decide if the author is positive (approving, sympathetic) about the subject matter or negative (disapproving) about it.

To see the difference between neutral and emotional writing compare the following extracts. The first, Mao. Unknown story (2005) by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, is a political biography of modern times where the authors shed the myths on which Mao’s national and international reputation rested. The authors objectively portray tyranny, degeneracy, mass murder and promiscuity: “From autumn 1953 nationwide requisitioning was imposed, in order to extract more food to pay for the Superpower Programme. The system followed that of a labour camp: leave the population just enough to keep them alive, and take all the rest. The regime decided that what constituted subsistence was an amount of food equivalent to 200 kg of processed grain per year, and this was called “basic food”. The second, The Insurrection in Dublin by Irish writer James Stephens, is a superb eyewitness account of the Easter rising of 1916. One afternoon Stephens watched in horror as rebel troops, in a botched attempt at casting off British rule, threw up a barricade that ultimately led to a civilian being shot right before him: “This has taken everyone by surprise. It is possible, that, with exception of their staff, it has taken the volunteers themselves by surprise; but today our peaceful city is no longer peaceful; guns are sounding, or rolling and crackling from different directions, and, although rarely, the rattle of machine gun can be heard also. (…) After a lie truth bursts out, and it is no longer the radiant and serene goddess we knew or hoped for – it is a disease, it is a moral syphilis and will ravage until the body in which it can dwell has been purged. Mr. Redmond told the lie and he is answerable to England for the violence she had to be guilty of, and to Ireland for the desolation to which we have had to submit. Without his lie there had been no Insurrection; without it there had been at this moment, and for a year past, an end to the “Irish question”. Ireland must in ages gone have been guilty of abominable crimes or she could not at this juncture have been afflicted with John Redmond”.

The author’s tone tends to be biased in many ways; it suggests his/her predisposition to influence the reader through emotional appeal and/or slanted presentation material. Bias may also be revealed through highly emotional statements, name-calling, stereotyping or over-generalization, faulty assumption based on weak or inaccurate information, and contradiction.

While tone is the deliberate stance the writer takes toward the subject of his or her writing, mood is the overall climate of feeling or emotional setting a writer creates as a backdrop for the action. For instance, Mary Shelly creates a powerful mood of gloom, horror, and suspense in the following excerpt from her novel Frankenstein (1818) choosing words with connotations that evoke these gloomy, anxious feelings in her audience: “ It was a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils. With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet. It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and convulsive motion agitated its limbs”.

The writer’s diction affects both tone and mood. Word choice, details, images, figurative language, and repetition all contribute to the mood of the piece of writing; these elements invite the reader to participate in the moment, to become part of the scene, and to have the same feeling.

Sometimes we can speak about pathos of literary works (strong emotional and evaluative attitude to the subject matter of writing). We distinguish heroic, dramatic, tragic, satirical, comic, sentimental, romantic pathos.

Questions: What’s the author’s tone? In what vein is the story told? Is it calm and tranquil or is it charged with tension and emotions? Is the extract neutral or opinionated and emotional, even pathetic? Is the author positive (approving, sympathetic) about the subject matter or negative (disapproving)? What’s the author’s intent? Is his/her view biased? What is the mood of the extract? What aspects of the human condition are foregrounded, what are suppressed? What note does the initial part of the story strike? On what note does the story end? How does the word choice and syntax contribute to the mood? What images impart the story a cheerful / melancholy / angry / humorous / sarcastic tone?

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