Exploring Pragmatics of Criticality as a Methodology in Linguistics and Literature Analysis

Abstract

The current review  attempts to unify the concept of criticality (as introduced by Cameron, 2000) as a linguistic tool used within the pragmatics of language interpretation that can be employed as a methodology shared by both linguistic and literary analyses. Both CDA and literary analysts use the same armamentarium when it comes to uncovering the power dynamics and hidden ideologies within a given text and the ideological orientations of the text reducers. However, the concept of criticality is utilized under different terminologies in linguistics pragmatics and literary analyses. In pragmatics, it is referred to as critical analysis of discourse, meaning to comment on the discourse producer’s intention within various contextual cues to uncover the hidden meaning and to demonstrate the power dynamics of the discourse. On the other hand, in literary analyses, it is manifested through the use of ‘political theory’ or ‘ideological theory’. The tools, by nature, are different in literature and pragmatics due to the functions of analysis, yet the theorists of all the above-mentioned terms are the same, i.e., Althusser, Foucault, Said, Gramisci, and others. Two examples are taken from linguistic pragmatics analysis and literature to be analyzed according to the same concept of criticality. Both examples yield similar justifications for the use of language in shaping power dynamics and discourse-meaning negotiation as well as uncovering the hidden ideologies of text producers under the multi-layered texts.