Linguistics for Students of Literature by Elizabeth Cross Traugott, and Mary Louise Pratt (review)

Book Reviews139 statement in which he said that he considered himself first to be an Austrian, and secondly a German. In discussing Weh' dem, der lügt, Thompson confuses the Franks with the French (p. 76), and it is quite debatable whether or not Grillparzer might have wanted to suggest in this play the Austro-German superiority over other Germans. Thompson states that Grillparzer had renounced traditional Christian beliefs, and that his plays do not expound behavior patterns derived from the code of ethics of any orthodox faith (pp. 143-44). The issue, however, is not as simple as Thompson suggests it to be. Grillparzer grew up in the atmosphere of a rationalist Josephinic Catholicism which gave him the essentials of his moral code. He himself was a Staatskirchler. His latent skepticism did not keep him from having a life-long concern for current or timeless ecclesiastical and theplogical issues. In his younger years, Grillparzer toyed with the idea of vicariously carrying out an imitatio Christi, through his cousin Marie Rizy who had become a nun ("An Selenen"). Not only was "Liebster Jesu!" his Liebling's Stoszseufzer, but later the aging poet even considered going to confession. His concept of Dichterberuf as Kunstpriestertum is essentially a secularized form of the Catholic Priestertum. Grillparzer was a member of the Reichsrat. One would have loved to hear something about the issue he dealt with in this august political body. PETER HORWATH Arizona State University Elizabeth Cross Traugott, and Mary Louise Pratt. Linguistics for Students of Literature. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1980. 444p. This is a very useful book: although English and Foreign Language departments have played an important role in the development of linguistics in the United States in this century, there continues to be a deep rift between students of literature and students of the science of language, with the former feeling that linguistics cannot deal with the real issue of literary language and the latter that literary scholars have too limited knowledge about the complexities of language. Traugott-Pratt attempt a contribution toward bridging this abyss by providing a textbook specifically designed for informing literature students about the principles of linguistics toward enhancing the sophistication of critical statements concerning the language of literary texts. Thus, on the one hand LSL covers the standard territory of introductory linguistics texts — "The Sounds of English," "Syntax," "Morphemes and Words: Introduction to the Lexicon" — along with exercises based on the material presented . But this material is complemented on the other hand by specific reference to questions of literary analysis (the first chapter is entitled "Language, Linguistics, and Literary Analysis"), and the routine introductory topics are followed by chapters that deal with text linguistics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, and a whole range of more specialized areas of linguistic research that impinge upon the issues ofliterary analysis. The goal is not to promote a "linguistically-based" literary criticism as such but rather to provide students with adequately precise concepts about language: one hopes that it will be widely used. One reservation: by gearing the book exclusively toward English students, the authors have essentially excluded its use in foreign language programs, which is indeed unfortunate, for it could have had a far wider 140ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW market if the title could be taken literally since it is really only for "...Students of English Literature." DAVID WILLIAM FOSTER Arizona State Univernty Charles G.S. Williams. Madame de Sévigné . Boston: Twayne Publishers, G.K. Hall, 1981. 167p. Professor Williams's book is primarily a chronological study of Madame de Sévigné's development as a person and as a letter-writer. The emphasis is placed on the events of her day and the people she knew and wrote to, while Williams's frequent insights into her literary personality and art are made more in passing than in the form of a systematic analysis. His prose style is often stilted and, on occasion, unclear. An interesting feature of the book is the comparison made between Madame de Sévigné's letters and the works of several authors whoseinspiration and style either influenced or paralleled hers. Her correspondence thus reveals the playfulness and verbal inventiveness of the précieux writer Voiture...