This handbook showcases the fast-growing field of work at the interface between pragmatics and literature.

Pragmatics is a well-established branch of linguistics and is concerned with the processes by which meaning is created in the interaction between language and its producers, receivers and contexts of use. There has been increasing recent interest in the application of pragmatics to our understanding of literature which, in this context, is understood broadly, to include a wide variety of creative uses of language.

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Pragmatics and Literature offers an overview of work in this field, bringing together newly commissioned studies from leading international experts. These studies draw on a wide range of pragmatic theories and frameworks for analysis. In doing so, they offer new insights into a broad variety of text types, including traditional categories such as poetry, drama and prose fiction, as well as less canonical and more recent genres such as pop song lyrics, manga comics and film subtitles. The major theories and frameworks of pragmatics are all represented, including Gricean and neo-Gricean theories, relevance theory, speech act theory and (im)politeness theory.

This timely and insightful collection of chapters addresses how pragmatics can contribute to a better and deeper understanding of issues connected with literary works. The chapters bring together various frameworks, touch on diverse literary genres and discuss issues connected with figures of speech, interpretation, translation, reception, emotion, and more. Providing valuable new insights into topics and issues connected with literature, literary genres, pragmatics and the interaction between pragmatics and literature, this must-have resource establishes pragmatics and literature as an important current research area and sets the agenda for the next phase in its development.

Siobhan Chapman is Professor in English at the University of Liverpool, UK.
Billy Clark is Professor in English Language and Linguistics at Northumbria University, UK.
Anne Furlong is Associate Professor in English at the University of Prince Edward Island, Canada.