Identity construction in the dramatic discourse of the English Restoration: A cognitive-pragmatic perspective

Beschreibung

Studies of identity construction contribute to understanding of one’s place in the world and society, fostering integration and development, and interpreting cultural values vital for a certain period of time. Research of identity helps to understand the processes of transformation and construction of new identities. The experiences of identity construction can be studied, compared, and illustrated on the example of different historical periods.

In the modern world, many societies are undergoing political, social, and cultural transformations and can be characterized as societies in transition. Therefore, studies of experiences of societies in transition contribute to better understanding of identity transformations that take place during this time. The period of the English Restoration serves a good example of such a society.

Socio-cultural transformations that took place in Restoration England led to construing the new worldview, which offered new beliefs, norms, and values and conceptualized new identities as well as new models of their communicative behaviour. In the time of transition from one political, social, and cultural order to another, from predominantly Puritan to Restoration worldview, theatre alike to the modern mass media was an instrument of propaganda that conceptualized the new epoch.

Introducing a cognitive-pragmatic vector of analysis combined with cultural linguistics and critical discourse analysis, the project aims to look into discursive means of identity construction in Restoration plays in gender and multimodal perspectives and to single out models of communicative behaviour characteristic of the period.

The research results aim to contribute to students’ comprehension and analysis of identity construction and transformation in different historical epochs and understanding of communicative behaviour.

The research methodology and findings can be used in further studies of identity construction in and through language as well as in studies of stereotyped models of communicative behaviour.