Recently many studies have drawn on work in discourse analysis and speech act theory. Pratt (1977) proposes a speech act theory of literature.
Searle (1975) discusses the logical status of fictional discourse and what
kinds of speech acts literature is performing. Carter (1979) uses discourse
concepts in an analysis of Auden's poetry. Stubbs (1983a) uses the concepts
of conversational implicature, following Grice (1975) in an interpretation of
a Hemingway story. Stylistics and literary criticism in general have often
been restricted to prose and poetry, and drama has been neglected. It is
dramatic dialogue which provides an obvious area of application of discourse
analysis. Burton (1980) provides a detailed study of short plays by lonesco
and Pinter, and a general discussion of the relationship between theatrical
dialogue and natural conversation, both using discourse analysis to develop
literary theory and also using the insights of dramatists as data for the
description of natural discourse. (See also Short, 1981.) A related body of
work studies narrative structure: this includes work by scholars such as
Propp (1928), Todorov (1969), and Genette (1980). Some of this work is
predominantly literary criticism; other work on oral narrative is more
obviously sociolinguistic (Labov, 1972b). All of this work uses basically
linguistic-structural techniques of description to provide a more explicit
account of the local and global structure of literary texts. Where literary
criticism previously discussed related questions at all, it was often restricted
to rather superficial commentary of, for example, differences between
spoken and written language (e.g. Page, 1973, on the uses of direct speech in
novels).