Mega-words in Sinclair Lewis’ Main Street: Under the Light of Laclau-Mouffean Insights

This paper seeks to unveil any deliberate or heedless process through which a word is defined or, better redefined. According to Ernesto and Chantal Mouffe, in order to attach a particular meaning to an event, the articulation has to exclude and refuse other possible meanings and also to embrace the intended ones. The literary corpus under study is Sinclair Lewis’ Main Street whose characters highlight and lowlight some moments of discourses,to convey their intended message. More precisely, a number of preeminent discourses are sampled out of the understudy text to figuratively arrest them for biasedly redefining an already defined word. Some of these discoursesinclude industry, art, family, and literature. Laclau-Mouffean insights are employed as a guiding flashlight through the inclusion and exclusion of meanings. Hence, words are devoid of any instinctive essence and this claim is treated as a lens to portray a pragmatic analysis of Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street.

Keywords:

Discourse , Laclau , Lewis , literature , language , meaning