Fictional Languages in Science Fiction Literature

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1984
A01=Israel A. C. Noletto
Anthony Burgess
Author_Israel A. C. Noletto
Brian W. Aldiss
Category=CF
Category=DS
Category=FL
China Mieville
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_dictionaries-language-reference
eq_fiction
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eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_science-fiction
Frank Herbert
George Orwell
glossopoesis
Ian Watson
Jack Vance
language invention studies
linguistic experiments
literary experimentalism
literary pragmatics
Mary D. Russell
narrative theory
Neal Stephenson
Robert Silverberg
Russell Hoban
Samuel R. Delany
science fiction language analysis
semiotics in literature
stylistic analysis
Ted Chiang
Ursula K. Le Guin
Will Self
world-building techniques

Product details

  • ISBN 9781032688886
  • Weight: 600g
  • Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
  • Publication Date: 31 May 2024
  • Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Hardback
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Fictional Languages in Science Fiction Literature surveys a large number of fictional languages, those created as part of a literary world, to present a multifaceted account of the literary phenomenon of glossopoesis (language invention). Consisting of a few untranslated sentences, exotic names, or even fully-fledged languages with detailed grammar and vocabulary, fictional languages have been a common element of English-language fiction since Thomas More’s Utopia (1516).

Different notions of the functions of such fictional languages in narrative have been proposed: as rooted in phonaesthetics and contextual features, or as being used for characterisation and construction of alterity. Framed within stylistics and informed by narrative theory, literary theory, literary pragmatics, and semiotics, this study combines previous typologies into a new 5-part reading model comprising unique analytical approaches tailored to science fiction’s specific discourse and style, exploring the relationship between glossopoesis, world-building, storytelling, interpretation, and rhetoric, both in prose and paratexts.

Israel A. C. Noletto is Professor of English Language and Literature at the Federal Institute of Piauí (IFPI), Brazil, and a conlanger. He is interested in literary stylistics and fictional languages in science fiction as a literary phenomenon and has published several articles on glossopoesis in writers ranging from George Orwell to Ted Chiang, Jonathan Swift to Anthony Burgess, Thomas More to Ursula K. Le Guin. He co-edited the book Reading Fictional Languages (2023), a collection of papers in glossopoesis by scholars in stylistics and professional language inventors from the UK, mainland Europe, USA, and Brazil.

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