Repetition and Graphic Marking in Literary Discourse Studies: Great Expectations

Abstract

This paper attempts to supply a more visual approach to literary discourse studies, which is based on the analysis of lexical and syntactical repetition aided by graphic marking. The paper discusses the criteria for a good discourse and the elements as a must for a literary discourse. Then it examines the categories of repetition in several disciplines to make a list of linguistic cues for discourse studies and the ways of graphic marking which are adopted to make them more detectable. The efficiency of this approach is observed with a case study of an extract from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. The paper finds that this approach is direct and efficient.