Autobiography studying - Реферат

The aim of this thesis paper is to determine the linguistic and extra-linguistic features of autobiographical genre. Derived from three Greek words meaning “self”, “life”, and “write”, autobiography is a style of writing that has been around nearly as long as history has been recorded. Autobiography is usually a story one tells about oneself. Autobiography is a way to organize the story of a life and reflect on the past in order to better understand the present. Autobiography is a genre in which the use of linguistic and extra-linguistic features can be equally observed.An autobiography is a work about the life of a person, written by that person. Derived from three Greek words meaning “self”, “life”, and “write”, autobiography is a style of writing that has been around nearly as long as history has been recorded. Many factual accounts, though not intended to be an autobiography as such, can be categorized as such because they contain “a self-revealed personality, after thorough reconsideration” (Bates 4). While an autobiography typically focuses on the “life and times” of the writer, a memoir has a narrower, more intimate focus on his or her own memories, feelings and emotions. For example, because the narrator and the protagonist are not identical, the narrator has “the ability to treat the self as other… create the occasion for self-regard and editing… the distance between self-now and self-then”.The first section of this chapter will give a brief overview of the research on linguistic and extra-linguistic features, whereas the second one will assess and analyze the linguistic and extra-linguistic features in Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography. To begin with, let us to start by considering the linguistic features in autobiographical genre, which are as follows: the category of modality (subjective), the category of retrospection, the first point of view, past perfect, past indefinite, the future in the past tense, and the use of modal verbs. The past indefinite tense denotes an action or happenings that took place in the past, that is to say in autobiography the author very often mentions an action, subjects, phenomena that took place in the past; for example, - They got an English Bible, it was fastened opened with tapes under and with the cover of a joint-stool. All these extra-linguistic features together constitute an extra-linguistic system, within which extra-linguistic components or aspects simultaneously give meaning to linguistic features. Attitude, being another factor necessary for the reader-writer interaction is an extra-linguistic feature but it should be noted that it has its realizations in linguistic features, which are mainly modal verbs; such as “should/would”.This thesis paper, being dedicated to the examination of the linguistic and extra-linguistic features of autobiographical genre is summed up, with the following points: the word autobiography was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English periodical the Monthly Review , when he suggested the word as a hybrid but condemned it as "pedantic"; but its next recorded use was in its present sense by Robert Southey in 1809. In this paper we have showed that autobiography is a form of introspection. Some people have also written their autobiography to serve some purpose, such as political propaganda or to narrate an account of some incident or event. The good thing about an autobiography is that we get to know about the writer"s emotions and thoughts quite easily. The investigation shows that in autobiography a lot of linguistic and especially extra-linguistic features are used with the help of which the reader gets to know the author’s emotions, personal opinion, author’s nationality, and many other details used in the text.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Genre of Autobiography

Chapter 2: Linguistic and Extra-linguistic Features of Autobiographical Genre and their Analysis in B. Franklin’s Autobiography

Conclusion

Bibliography

autobiography linguistic franklin

This thesis paper, being dedicated to the examination of the linguistic and extra-linguistic features of autobiographical genre is summed up, with the following points: the word autobiography was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English periodical the Monthly Review , when he suggested the word as a hybrid but condemned it as "pedantic"; but its next recorded use was in its present sense by Robert Southey in 1809. In this paper we have showed that autobiography is a form of introspection. Of a great importance was the fact that the text is not free from emotions. With the help of extra-linguistic means character’s intentions are revealed: thoughts and emotions is another way that the narrator evaluates why events occurred as they did. By explaining what happened in the past, the author is able to express to the reader how the self evolved. This relating is then evaluated socially according to whether actions are appropriate or inappropriate or surprising or normal. Other interactions that the narrator establishes are relationships with other characters in the story.

Central to this paper was the point, that the term autobiography is quite generic in nature and several great personalities have written "great books" as a collection of their personal experiences. Some people have also written their autobiography to serve some purpose, such as political propaganda or to narrate an account of some incident or event. The good thing about an autobiography is that we get to know about the writer"s emotions and thoughts quite easily. The investigation shows that in autobiography a lot of linguistic and especially extra-linguistic features are used with the help of which the reader gets to know the author’s emotions, personal opinion, author’s nationality, and many other details used in the text. It should also be mentioned that the linguistic features refer to the surrounding features of the language inside the text, like sounds, words, phrases which are relevant to the interpretation of other such linguistic elements. The settings of the narrative, the process of sharing information, feelings, themes, situations, the attitude of the writer, his/her personal opinion are all described as extra-linguistic features used in autobiographical narrative.

According to the paper, Benjamin Franklin"s Autobiography is one of the best examples of the autobiographical genre. All above said was analyzed and proved in B. Franklin’s autobiography, whose book is helping to set the standard of what an autobiography is, can, or should be, rather than subverting that standard.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Anderson, Linda R. “Autobiography: New Critical Idiom”. New York: Routledge, 2001.

2. Barros, Carolyn (1998). “Autobiography: Narrative of Transformation”. Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press .

3. Berryman, Charles. "Critical Mirrors: Theories of Autobiography." (1999).

4. E. Stuart Bates, “Inside out: An Introduction to Autobiography” ( New York: Sheridan House, 1937)

5. James Paul Gee “Discourse Analysis; Theory and Method” Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London (1999).

6. Jean Quigley, “The Grammar of Autobiography: A Developmental Account”: Cambridge University Press 2001.

7. New York, N.Y.: Barnes HYPERLINK "javascript:HYPERSEARCH("New York, N.Y. : Barnes & Noble Books, c1994.","PU")"&HYPERLINK "javascript:HYPERSEARCH("New York, N.Y. : Barnes & Noble Books, c1994.","PU")" Noble Books, c1994. “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin”

8. Oxford English Dictionary 1989 , Autobiography

9. Olney, James (1998). “Memory & Narrative: The Weave of Life-Writing”.

10. Peter Verdonk “Stylstics”, Oxford University Press 2002.

11. Roger J Porter; Howard Robert Wolf-“The voice within”: reading and writing autobiography. (1973)

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