“GOOD EVENING TO YOU, LADY OF THE HOUSE”: CONSIDERACIONES SOBRE EL PRINCIPIO DE CORTESÍA EN EL TEATRO DE J.M. SYNGE

En el ambito de los estudios irlandeses se ha estudiado con profusion el inesperado fracaso del fenomeno teatral encabezado por W.B. Yeats y en el que John Millington Synge se llevo la peor de las partes. La subversion que sus personajes implicaban a todos los niveles explica el rechazo de los mismos por parte del publico que acudia en masa al Abbey Theatre solo para silbar y patalear durante alguna de sus representaciones (Kilroy 1971). Un analisis detallado de la forma en la que hace que se expresen apunta en esta direccion. La incorreccion verbal es una sena caracteristica del teatro de esta figura clave de la literatura irlandesa. Partiendo de ahi, en el presente trabajo se aplica el principio de cortesia linguistica (Brown y Levinson 1987) a tres de las obras mas destacadas de este dramaturgo: In the Shadow of the Glen, The Tinker’s Wedding y The Well of the Saints. Con la intencion de refutar los resultados de trabajos anteriores (Hidalgo-Tenorio 1999) y demostrar la validez de este modelo en la investigacion de textos de ficcion, se comprueba que esas mujeres, que rompen con la norma social y conversacional una y otra vez, en casos muy excepcionales hacen un uso magistral de todas las estrategias posibles de cortesia. Las razones son tan diversas como las que se darian en cualquier transaccion conversacional del mundo real. Este articulo se proponer desgranarlas como uno de sus objetivos. Palabras clave: Pragmatica, principio de cortesia, genero, teatro irlandes, J.M. Synge. English title: “Good Evening to You, Lady of the House”: Considerations on the Politeness Principle in J.M. Synge’s Drama Abstract: In the field of Irish studies, scholars have considered extensively the failure of the theatrical experience led by W.B. Yeats and J.M. Synge, who bore the brunt of popular criticism. The subversion embodied in Synge’s characters explains their rejection by the public, who flocked to the Abbey Theatre just to whistle and stamp their feet during some of his performances. One in January 1907 caused a particularly furious reaction from the press and political nationalists (Kilroy 1971). Since verbal impropriety (Bousfield and Locher 2008, Culpeper 2011) is their most outstanding characteristic, the analysis of how this major literary figure makes them express themselves can shed light on a phenomenon of much sociological relevance. Accordingly, here I apply the politeness principle (Brown and Levinson 1978, 1987) to four of his most well-known plays: The Well of the Saints, The Tinker’s Wedding, In the Shadow of the Glen and The Playboy of the Western World. Apart from demonstrating the validity of this model in the exploration of fiction, I will show that those women, who regularly break social and conversational norms, make use of all politeness strategies in very exceptional cases. The reasons are as diverse as those articulated in any real-world transaction, and this article aims to disentangle them. Thus, it will be easier to tackle the issue of gender role construction (Holmes 1995, Weatherall 2002, Litoselitti 2006), which is definitely one of the grounds on which Dublin’s dismissal of the Irish Dramatic Movement was based (Hidalgo-Tenorio 1999). Keywords: Pragmatics, politeness theory, gender, Irish Theatre, J.M. Synge.