A Critical Stylistic Study of Family- Children Aggressive Speech in the Bluest Eye

Abstract

This study applies Critical Stylistics in analyzing aggressive speech by adapting Jeffries (2010) model as the analytical framework within Toni Morrison's novel, The Bluest Eye. Due to the fact that aggression is a critical social behavior, it is studied in terms of linguistics, pragmatics, and even critical pragmatics however it is not tackled from a critical stylistic perspective. Thus, the study under scrutiny deals with aggression as a domestic and social behavior from a CS perspective aspiring to answer the questions of: 1. how aggressive language is displayed in parents-children communication through a critical stylistic standpoint? 2. What are the stylistic tools used in the novel to express the ideological effects? The study aims to investigate the linguistic markers of aggressiveness, contextual significance, and their influence on character development and interactions. It is hypothesized that: 1. Aggressive language has a major role in shaping character dynamics and the narrative. 2. Aggressive language is realized via two levels: ideational level and textual level to reveal the ideological effects. The study contributes to a nuanced understanding of language's portrayal of aggression and its implications in the context of the novel. It also reveals that aggression can be seen as a critical social behavior practiced by the aggressor for a particular reason such as want, desire, need or because of the psychological state of the aggressor