"This is grown-ups’ time "This is grown-ups’ time. Why don’t you go read one of those books of yours?" Writers’ creation of dialogue and voice in literary texts (for Lit and Lang/Lit)

What do prose fiction writers aim to do? Develop characters Reveal relationships Explore themes Create moods and atmospheres Create tension and suspense Develop plot

How? Narrative voice characters Description –place and people Actions and behaviour Dialogue Imagery and symbolism

dialogue in novels How do writers create individual voices? To make dialogue convincing and to reveal more about a character, writers give the characters their own unique styles of speech. How do writers create individual voices? The rhythm for their speech Level of formality Repeated expressions or phrases Unusual way of speaking Length of utterances Use of accent, dialect, non standard English Sentence types- questions, commands etc Punctuation to indicate tone ! .... Reporting clause or tag (he whispered softly)

Hortense – Small Island Read the extract from Small Island Use the checklist on the previous slide to analyse how Levy creates a unique voice for both Hortense and for Queenie (the English woman answering the door).

Terminology to describe dialogue Direct speech Reporting clause Free direct speech Indirect speech Free indirect speech

Direct speech What is direct speech? How do you recognise it? "Gilbert Joseph?" I said, a little slower. "Oh, Gilbert. Who are you?" She pronounced Gilbert so strangely that for a moment I was anxious that I would be delivered to the wrong man. Impression of character? Relationship?

Reporting clause He said She whispered The man inquired. Suggest alternatives for ‘he said’ in the above example. How does this alter your impression of the character or relationship?

Free direct speech Removes the reporting clause Sometimes, also removes the speech marks What is the effect of removing the reporting clause?

Indirect speech Narrator tells reader what the speaker said but does not use the exact words. Shifts focus on to narrator , away from speaker. Change example on next slide from direct to indirect speech. What changes take place?

‘I am sorry for the rain’, said he ‘I am sorry for the rain’, said he . ‘But I am glad I am to have you here! I am so afraid you will get cold with nothing upon your arms and shoulders,’ he said. ‘Creep close to me and perhaps the drizzle won’t hurt you much.’

changes Quotation marks dropped Add ‘that’ Change from first and second person to third person - I and you - he and she Change tense from present to past Change reference to place from close to distant ‘here’ to ‘there’ What effect does this have? Why might a writer choose to use indirect speech?

Free indirect speech Reporting clause ‘she said that’ is missing Past tense - uses third person pronoun This is mediated by the author so that the character seems to speak through the narrator Look at this example from Northanger Abbey ‘His address was good, and Catherine felt herself in high luck. When they were seated at tea she found him as agreeable as she had already given him credit for being.’

Interesting voices to explore You will find interesting narrative voices and dialogue in: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini Trainspotting – Irvine Welsh Small Island – Andrea Levy Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons Joseph in Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Recast practice Choose two of the characters from extracts of The Kite Runner (go for minor characters here) or Revolutionary Road if you’re a Lit student – this is useful as an exercise even if you’re not recasting in an exam! Imagine a different scenario, e.g. Ali and Hassan’s conversation when Baba is revealed to be his real father Write the dialogue, conveying the voices of the characters. You could swap with a partner. Can they guess which characters you have chosen?