Bridging the Gap between Conversation Analysis and Poetics: Studies in Talk-In-Interaction and Literature Twenty-Five Years after Jefferson (Routledge Research in Language and Communication)

This collection extends the conversation beginning with Gail Jefferson’s seminal 1996 article, "On the Poetics of Ordinary Talk," linking the poetics of ordinary talk with the work of poets to bring together critical perspectives on new data from talk-in-interaction and applications of Jefferson’s poetics to literary discourse. Bringing together contributions from Conversation Analysis and literary scholars, the book begins by analyzing the presentation which served as the genesis for Jefferson’s article to highlight the occurrence of poetics in institutional talk. The first section then provides an in-depth examination of case studies from Conversation Analysis which draw on new data from naturally occurring discourse. The second half explores literary poetics as a form of institutional talk emerging from the poetics of ordinary talk, offering new possibilities for interpreting work in classics, biblical studies, folklore studies and contemporary literature. Each chapter engages in a discussion of Jefferson’s article toward reinforcing the relationships between the two disciplines and indicating a way forward for interdisciplinary scholarship. The collection highlights the enduring influence of Jefferson’s poetics to our understanding of language, both talk-in interaction and literary discourse, making this book of particular interest to students and researchers in Conversation Analysis, literary studies, stylistics, and pragmatics. Contents List of Contributors Notes on Transcription Conventions Introduction: Bridging the Gap: Conversation Analysis and Poetics From Jefferson to Now • John P. Rae, Robin Wooffitt, and Raymond F. Person, Jr. Part 1: Studies in Poetics: Talk-In-Interaction 1 Poetics and Performativity in the Management of Delicacy and Affiliation • Ian Hutchby 2 A Walk on the Wild Side: Exploring Associations Across Topic Transition in Interaction • Elizabeth Holt 3 On Doing Things Through Topical Puns and Near-Synonyms in Conversation • John P. Rae 4 The Poetics in Jefferson’s Poetics Lecture • Robin Wooffitt, Darren Reed, Jessica A. Young, and Clare Jackson Part 2: Studies in Poetics: Literature 5 The Poetics of Mrs Gamp’s Conversation—Are They Dickens’s ‘Slips of the Pen’? • Hugo Bowles 6 Dialogic Syntax in Ancient Greek Conversation • Anna Bonifazi 7 Repetition, Parallelism, and Non-Repetition: From Ordinary Talk to Ritual Poetry and Back Again • Frog 8 Poetics and List-Construction: A Study of Text-Critical Variants in Lists Found in the New Testament, Homer, and the Hebrew Bible • Raymond F. Person, Jr. Author Index Subject Index