DISCOURSE CATEGORIES: A CASE FOR ENGLISH RESTORATION DRAMA

Abstract

In this article, the notions of discourse and discourse categories are considered within the framework of a cognitive-communicative paradigm. In particular, three groups of discourse categories: cognitive, communicative and metadiscursive are considered in this paper. Within the group of cognitive discourse categories, I consider Restoration ideology and argue, that the institution of theatre and the dramatic discourse of the period became powerful means royal propaganda. I argue, that the dramatic discourse of the English Restoration performed two main functions: entertainment and dissemination of a new ideology. In this paper, I substantiate that the religious discourse of English Puritanism was replaced by the secular Restoration one. Within the group of cognitive categories, I also single out basic discourse-generative concepts of the dramatic discourse of the English Restoration. As to the group of communicative discourse categories, I focus on the values, chronotope, and the participants of the dramatic discourse of the English Restoration. I argue, that Restoration discourse disseminated libertine values such as licentiousness and debauchery. As to the chronotope of the dramatic discourse of the English Restoration, in this article, I state that the events in Restoration drama take place mostly in popular and familiar to both readers and viewers places of the London of the seventeenth century and discourse participants are mostly representatives of a wealthy upper middle class and the nobility. Within the group of metadiscursive discourse categories, I focus on the existing variety of genres inherent in the dramatic discourse of the English Restoration.