Character and characterisation in Julian Barnes' Talking it over : a corpus stylistic analysis

• Main Author: Walker, Brian David
• Published: Lancaster University 2012
• Subjects: 823.914
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.625457

This thesis combines stylistics with tools and methods from corpus linguistics to investigate character and characterisation in Julian Barnes' novel Talking It Over. The analysis is guided by Culpeper's (2001) checklist of textual character cues, which I first assess and then amend in I order to take into account the presence of a narrator in prose fiction. The corpus analysis uses primarily WMatrix (Rayson 2009), but is assisted, when necessary, by AntConc (Anthony2011). My analysis focuses on the three main characters in the novel (Stuart, Oliver and Gillian), who are also the principle narrators, and looks at how impressions of these character-narrators are formed from the information provided in their narrations. I use statistical comparison, and the associated notion of keyness, to provide potential foci for further analysis. My thesis thus tests out the potential link between statistical salience and interpretative relevance, and the link between (automated) quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis.