Fictional dialogues reported by Benjamin in Faulkner's The Sound and The Fury : a taxonomical stylistic study

Abstract EN

The dialogues reported by Benjaruin, the mentally-retarded narrator of the first section in Faulkner's the sound and the Fury draw attention as to their structuring patterns.

Thus they are analyzed according to a repartee taxonomy proposed and elaborated on by Robert F.

Long acre (1996).The taxonomy outlines many types of dialogue paragraphs including simple complex abeyance caution/stimulus-response and compound.

Upon applying the taxonomy to Ben's dialogues, results crop up supporting the exactness and precision of Ben's reports.

Handicapped himself and unable to speak ,Ben shows mastery over the task of the adequate reporting of dialogues he happens to overhear involuntarily.

The dialogues filtered through his damaged consciousness are copied with nether modification nor distortion.

The detailed analysis of the internal structure of sample dialogues displays the variety and complexity of the dialogues reported.

An array of dialogue types and almost all sub-branches appear in the text.

The minute analysis strikes one for the prevalence of compound dialogues where Ben could handle long stretches of speech with many speakers conversing with each other and on various topics.

Ben asserts himself as the objective narrator who records machine like and furtively what is said before him without any intrusion on his part