Dialogue in the Novel: notes on Fielding's Joseph Andrews

The paper proposes a new reading of Henry Fielding’s Joseph Andrews aimed at a description of dialogic interaction which throws interesting light on the author’s narrative art. As a matter of fact, the study of the phenomenology and functions of dialogue in the novel turns out to be an extremely fertile ground of investigation and provides privileged insights into the inner mechanisms of the narrative text, as well as into its social and cultural context. A close analysis of some key dialogues ‒ performed through a pragmatic and sociolinguistic approach ‒ reveals the various functions attributed to linguistic interaction in the novel, where dialogue serves not only as the main tool to introduce characters and describe their personalities, but also as a way of unveiling the power relationships they entertain. Moreover, dialogue plays a fundamental role at the level of the plot, since it often determines the turn of events, causing the story to take new directions.