The Analysis of I Have a Dream
Abstract: On the base of the definition of stylistics, this thesis gives a detailed analysis of some the of stylistic devices used in the famous speech by the well-known American civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King, Jr., and then probes into the stylistic characteristics of speech as a style.
Key words: Stylistics, Stylistic devices, analysis, speech
As an interdisciplinary field of study, stylistics promises to offer useful insights into literary criticism and the teaching of literature with its explicit aims and effective techniques. It is very useful in the analysis of various styles of writing. In this thesis, the author tries to offer a stylistic analysis of the famous speech by Martin Luther king, Jr. I Have a Dream.
1. Introduction: Definition of Stylistics and Stylistic Analysis
As far as the definition of stylistics is concerned different scholars define the branch of study in different ways. Wales defines stylistics simply as “ the study of style” (1989:437), while Widdowson provides a more informative definition as “the study of literary discourse from a linguistic orientation” and takes “a view that what distinguishes stylistics from literary criticism on the one hand and linguistics on the other is that it is essentially a means of linking the two” (1975:3). Leech holds a similar view. He defines stylistics as the “study of the use of language in literature” (1969:1) and considers stylistics a “meeting-ground of linguistics and literary study”(1969:2). From what Widdowson and Leech say, we can see that stylistics is an area of study that straddles two disciplines: literary criticism and linguistics. It takes literary discourse (text) as its object of study and uses linguistics as a means to that end.
Stylistic analysis is generally concerned with the uniqueness of a text; that is, what it is that is peculiar to the uses of language in a literary text for delivering the message. This naturally involves comparisons of the
Key words: Stylistics, Stylistic devices, analysis, speech
As an interdisciplinary field of study, stylistics promises to offer useful insights into literary criticism and the teaching of literature with its explicit aims and effective techniques. It is very useful in the analysis of various styles of writing. In this thesis, the author tries to offer a stylistic analysis of the famous speech by Martin Luther king, Jr. I Have a Dream.
1. Introduction: Definition of Stylistics and Stylistic Analysis
As far as the definition of stylistics is concerned different scholars define the branch of study in different ways. Wales defines stylistics simply as “ the study of style” (1989:437), while Widdowson provides a more informative definition as “the study of literary discourse from a linguistic orientation” and takes “a view that what distinguishes stylistics from literary criticism on the one hand and linguistics on the other is that it is essentially a means of linking the two” (1975:3). Leech holds a similar view. He defines stylistics as the “study of the use of language in literature” (1969:1) and considers stylistics a “meeting-ground of linguistics and literary study”(1969:2). From what Widdowson and Leech say, we can see that stylistics is an area of study that straddles two disciplines: literary criticism and linguistics. It takes literary discourse (text) as its object of study and uses linguistics as a means to that end.
Stylistic analysis is generally concerned with the uniqueness of a text; that is, what it is that is peculiar to the uses of language in a literary text for delivering the message. This naturally involves comparisons of the
Bibliography: [1]. Martin Luther King, Jr., I Have a Dream, August 28, 1963 [2]. Wang Shouyuan, Essentials of English Stylistics, Shandong University Press, July, 2000 [3]. Pan Shaozhang, English Rhetoric and Writing, Shanghai Transportation University Press, December, 1998 [4]. Widdowson, H. G. Stylistics and the Teaching of Literature, Longman, 1975 [5]. Leech, G. N. “ ‘This bread I break’ Language and interpretation”. In D.C. Freeman. (ed.). Linguistics and Literature Style. New York:Holt, Rinhart & Winston. Acknowledgements: It was really a laborious task to accomplish a B.A thesis. Many people gave me support and help in the process of writing the paper. I’d like first to give my grate to my dear teacher, vice professor Mr. Liu Fagong, who generously gave me his kindly help and instructions during the whole process of my paper-writing.Then I’d like to give my many thanks to my classmates who helped me a lot with my information collecting and paper-polishing. Most important of all, I want to give my thanks to my mother university and all the teachers in the English College, who educated and cultivated me to be a qualified teacher in the future.