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Part of
The Conversation Frame: Forms and functions of fictive interaction
Edited by Esther Pascual and Sergeiy Sandler
[Human Cognitive Processing 55] 2016
► pp. 113–130

Persuading and arguing with the reader

Fictive interaction as discourse organizing device in witchcraft pamphlet prefaces (1566–1621)

| Hanyang University, South Korea

Integrating Goffman’s concept of footing (1981), this chapter examines textually monologic – but conceptually dialogic – prefatory materials of Early Modern English witchcraft pamphlets (1566 to 1621) and explicates how pamphleteers consistently invoke and inhabit different speaking roles to set up fictive exchanges with imagined addressees. By alternating between speaking perspectives during such fictive interaction, the pamphleteer is able to persuade and argue with the here-and-now reader, thereby promoting the reception of the main text.

Keywords: authorial role, character role, footing, interlocutory role, speaking roles
Published online: 1 November 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.55.06cha
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