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Volume 16, Issue 2
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Abstract

Abstract

Suspense as an aesthetic effect is a key narrative strategy of thriller movies, serving the function of entertainment for wide audiences. As the plot unfolds, arcs of suspense rely on triggering an appealing sense of anticipation that calls for a resolution. The present study examines the creation of suspense throughout fictional dialogue in Quentin Tarantino’s popular feature films (1994), (2009), and (2012). In these movies, dialogic interaction is often dominated by eloquent villains who skilfully flout the conversational maxims of Grice’s cooperative principle, thereby exercising verbal power over other interlocutors. As is demonstrated in a qualitative pragma-stylistic framework, the villains’ discursive strategies amount to stylistic deviation resulting in suspenseful implicatures. In particular, suspense is commonly caused by digressing from current topics, by giving too little information or too many details, by being insincere or ironic, and by making equivocal or redundant statements.

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2024-02-29
2024-10-05

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Tarantino’s eloquent villains
English Text Construction 16, 119 (2023); https://doi.org/10.1075/etc.22022.sch
/content/journals/10.1075/etc.22022.sch
/content/journals/10.1075/etc.22022.sch
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): conversational maxims; cooperative principle; film dialogue; implicature; suspense

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