Investigating politeness strategies in Albee’s play 'the zoo story'

Abstract EN

The present study attempts to analyse and interpret Albee's (1958) play 'The Zoo Story' by investigating the politeness strategies as a stylistic tool.

Indeed, it examines the extent to which politeness strategies that characters employed in 'The Zoo Story' highlight the intended meaning of the play.

To this effect, the researcher adopted a stylistic textual analysis whereby he employed the model of linguistic politeness that was developed by Brown & Levinson (1978).

The findings of the study medicate a contrast in the politeness strategies that the two characters employed which reflects the contrast that exists between the social classes that the two characters belong to.