Searching for the Ideal: Variety of Representations in Selected Extracts from Tom Stoppard's Trilogy

Soliman, Hoda

doi:10.21608/jssa.2022.135240.1380

Searching for the Ideal: Variety of Representations in Selected Extracts from Tom Stoppard's Trilogy "The Coast of Utopia"

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Hoda Soliman

Faculty of Arts , Menoufia University

10.21608/jssa.2022.135240.1380

Abstract

This study attempts to investigate the various ideological representations of social change attempted by some characters in Tom Stoppard's trilogy The Coast of Utopia. Ideologies of the characters are analyzed depending on the definition of ideology as a set of beliefs, attitudes, and aspects that can be changed, acquired, used and shared socially and discursively by individuals and groups according to the required interests Labov's (1972) narrative model of structural analysis is applied to the selected extracts from the trilogy. This model is used to investigate the macro structures of the selected text. In addition, Fairclough's (1995-2003) views of ideology that can be located in discourse conventions and discursive elements are applied too. The micro structures of the text are investigated through applying some aspects of Halliday's functional grammar. The study reveals the role of ideology in politicizing literature, politicizing the conservative and developmental ideologies, and the practical application of ideology to achieve social change in the environment of the trilogy. Some micro structures such as modal verbs, adjectives, material verbs, and conjunctions are used as representative aspects of the writer's text. Besides, legitimation, and delegitimation of ideologies are explored too. Also, discursive dualism plays an important role in creating ideal and problematic categories. This is to ideologize the characters' beliefs in an ideal and utopian society.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Language and Literature

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