FREE INDIRECT DISCOURSE IN E. WHARTON’S NOVELS

Abstract

Free Indirect Discourse is one of the most complicated stylistic devices used in a literary text. This article focuses on Free Indirect Discourse functioning in novels by E. Wharton, one of the most popular American writers of the late 19th-early 20th century. Her characters are complex and her narrative is involved and polyphonic. History of Free Indirect Discourse studies is touched upon. Three periods in the research history are distinguished and described. Substantial attention is paid to different approaches to the notion of Free Indirect Discourse in European linguistics. The author considers specific lexical and syntactic features of Free Indirect Discourse. Major emphasis is placed on the polyphonic effect of a literary text. Various types of Free Indirect Discourse as well as its functions are explored on the text of E. Wharton’s novels “The Age of Innocence” and “The Custom of the Country”. Two male characters are shown through the specific features of their discourse. A brief outline of E. Wharton’s literary work is given, samples of Free Indirect Discourse are analyzed. The evolution of the main characters’ views is shown through the analysis of Free Indirect Discourse.