Abstract

One of the difficulties in trying to discuss literary discourse is that it is in dispute whether there is such a thing as a form of discourse that is intrinsically literary in nature. This is not to say that the notion of literary language in itself is denied. What is in contention is whether literariness resides in the language or whether it is a function of something outside the language such as the readers, their expectations or the cultural norms of the time. There is, for the moment, no agreed position on this, and in this section it might be worth our while to consider the various positions that we could take.