Pragmatic Failure Behind Shakespearean Catastrophe: A Study in Othello
Article Details
Pub. Date
:
Sep, 2016
Product Name
:
The IUP Journal of English Studies
Product Type
:
Article
Product Code
:
IJES51609
Author Name
:
M Chandrasena Rajeswaran and S Padmasani Kannan
Availability
:
YES
Subject/Domain
:
English Studies
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:
PDF Format
No. of Pages
:
7
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Abstract
Pragmatic failure occurs when a hearer fails to determine the operational meaning of an utterance. Cross-cultural mismatches initiate sociopragmatic failure. Shakespeare, the dramatist par excellence, manipulates such mismatching conditions in human relationship in multilingual and multi-ethnic contexts in Othello that the catastrophe inevitably emerges from the characters themselves. The key characters in Othello tend toward literal interpretation, taking utterances at face value rather than inferring what is meant from what is said and underusing context information. This paper delineates the lack of pragmatic comprehension on the part of different characters in Othello and its consequence. The basic concept of this paper is to analyze the dialogues and the conditions that govern them with relevance to the speech act theory of Austin (1962) and Searle (1969) and to the concept of domain of pragmatics as offered by Fraser (1983).
Description
It has been universally accepted and acknowledged that William Shakespeare is a dramatist par excellence. He stands apart not only because of his creativity in rebuilding the stories of ancient princes, medieval kings, dukes, and lieutenants but because of his ability to create real men and women and not mere abstractions. His characters are so much life-like as seem to share the joys and pleasures of life and suffer like ordinary human beings the woes and misfortunes they consider not their own but mostly the result of their own words uttered in the wrong place to wrong people. This paper delineates the lack of pragmatic comprehension on the part of the key characters in the play Othello and its consequences. The pragmatic failure pushes the characters into catastrophe from which they never escape. The objective of this paper is to analyze the dialogues and the conditions that govern them with reference to speech act theory of Austin (1962) and Searle (1969), and the concept of domain of pragmatics as offered by Fraser (1983).
Keywords
English Studies Journal, Pragmatic Failure, Shakespearean, Catastrophe, Illocutionary Function, Perlocutionary Function, Study in Othello.
