A stylistic analysis of selected passages in 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings'.

摘要

J. R. R. Tolkien's abilities in the art of narrative are explored and evaluated through the medium of linguistic/sociolinguistic and literary theories. Chapter 1 discusses a poem by Tolkien, "From dark Dunharrow in the dim morning," examining its exploitation of the rules and techniques of Old English poetic verse. Chapter 2 investigates Tolkien's skill in depicting not only comic conversations, in The Hobbit, but in balancing the comic with the potentially tragic; this is done through the medium of "Face," "Implicature," and "Speech Acts" as advanced, respectively, by Goffman, Grice and Searle. Chapter 3 explores "evaluation," as proposed by Labov, in the passage from The Lord of the Rings which describes the riding of king Theoden at the Battle of the Pelenor. Appendix A contains the scene from The Hobbit, which is to be analysed in Chapter 2. Appendix B contains a "labovian" breakdown of the passage which is to be analysed in Chapter 3. The sources of each passage that is to undergo stylistic scrutiny are The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.