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Article published In:
Real Fictions: Fictionality, factuality and narrative strategies in contemporary storytelling
Edited by Sam Browse, Alison Gibbons and Mari Hatavara
[Narrative Inquiry 29:2] 2019
► pp. 333–351

“I can tell the difference between fiction and reality”

Cross-fictionality and Mind-style in political rhetoric

| Sheffield Hallam University
| Tampere University

This article approaches fictionality as a set of semiotic strategies prototypically associated with fictional forms of storytelling (Hatavara & Mildorf, 2017b). Whilst these strategies are strongly associated with fiction, they might also be used in non-fictional and ontologically ambivalent contexts to create ‘cross-fictional’ rhetorical effects. We focus on the representation of thought and consciousness. Using the concept of ‘mind style’ (Fowler, 1977, 1996; Leech & Short, 1981; Semino, 2007), we investigate the linguistic representation of the internal monologue of British Prime Minister, Theresa May, in a satirical newspaper article. The stylistic analysis of the PM’s mind style facilitates an account of the elaborate and nuanced mixing of May and the author’s ideological perspectives throughout the piece. We argue that this cross-fictional, stylistic approach better accounts for the satirical effects of fictionality in the text than those placing a premium on authorial intention and the invented nature of the narrative discourse.

Keywords: fictionality, cross-fictionality, mind style, Theresa May, satire, political discourse, newspaper discourse
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Fictionality and narratology
  • Fictionality and mind style
  • Fictionality and mind style in political punditry
    • Constructing May’s mind style
    • Thoughts embedded in thoughts
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Published online: 16 October 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.19018.bro
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