Narrative triangulations: Truth, identity, and desire in Ford Madox Ford's<i>The Good Soldier</i>

Angelis, Rose De

doi:10.1080/00138380701442981

Cited by 3 publications

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“…McCarthy suggests a more moderate diagnosis, but still one which focuses on inability of Dowell’s part; he ‘is not very imaginative or perspective; he has a plodding, meticulous mind’ (McCarthy, 1997: 142). De Angelis has a different explanation; Dowell’s narrative style can be explained by his powerful but supressed desire for Edward, which has left him ‘closeted and confused’ (De Angelis, 2007: 426).…”

Section: The Good Soldiermentioning

confidence: 99%

‘I don’t know how it is best to put this thing down’: Uncooperative narration in Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier

Chapman

2023

Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics

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This article offers a pragmatic stylistic analysis of Ford Madox Ford’s 1915 novel The Good Soldier, assessing the technical notion of ‘cooperation’ developed in Gricean theory as a means of explaining its distinctive narrative style. Critics have generally agreed this text offers a salient example of unreliable narration, but have differed significantly in how they judge the character of the narrator himself, and even in how they interpret the events of the novel. Grice characterises communicative exchanges as typically rational pieces of behaviour, in which a mutually accepted set of purposes guarantees that individual contributions are suitable and constructive, but he does also detail ways in which speakers may fail to fulfil these expectations. This article will analyse examples from the novel in which the relationship between narrator and reader might be characterised as uncooperative in specifically Gricean terms; the narrator faces a clash of conversational maxims, opts out of the maxims or violates them, rather than either adhering to them or flouting them for communicative effect. This suggests a way in which pragmatic literary stylistics might be able to offer a principled explanation of the idiosyncratic style of this canonical work of modernist fiction, and by extension of the effects of this style of narration on the reader.

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Section: The Good Soldiermentioning

confidence: 99%

‘I don’t know how it is best to put this thing down’: Uncooperative narration in Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier

Chapman

2023

Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics

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Understanding Self and Others: Marriage Scenarios in Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier and Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina

Shpylova-Saeed¹

2016

Crossroads

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Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier and Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina establish a literary and cultural dialogue through the exploration of the individual's private space. The two writers are undoubtedly intrigued by a fluid nature of the individual: marriage appears to reveal inner conflicts, doubts, anxieties, as well as longing for happiness. Although pursuing different agendas when indulgingly devising sentimental love stories and outrageous adulteries, Ford and Tolstoy echo each other when delivering their vision of self and other. This essay explores the topos of marriage as an element that amplifies the textual double-coding and reveals ethic and aesthetic values Ford and Tolstoy communicate.

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From Experience to Expertise: Witnessing in the Criminal Trial and Ford Madox Ford'sThe Good Soldier

Ferguson

2010

Law and Humanities

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Narrative triangulations: Truth, identity, and desire in Ford Madox Ford'sThe Good Soldier

Cited by 3 publications

References 8 publications

‘I don’t know how it is best to put this thing down’: Uncooperative narration in Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier

‘I don’t know how it is best to put this thing down’: Uncooperative narration in Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier

Understanding Self and Others: Marriage Scenarios in Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier and Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina

From Experience to Expertise: Witnessing in the Criminal Trial and Ford Madox Ford'sThe Good Soldier

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