A Pragmatic Study of the Image of Death in "The Corpse Washer" by Sinan Antoon

This study's primary goal is to examine how Antoon's "the Corpse Washer" deals with the concept of “death” in practical ways. Antoon discusses the idea of “death” in Iraqi society after ۲۰۰۳ using a specific language that is not straight forward, rather it has a deep and intensive meaning. The analysis deals, namely, with one novel which is "The Corpse Washer" by the Iraqi novelist Sinan Antoon (۲۰۱۳). Antoon gives a vivid picture of death in which, following colonization, all Iraqis are victims of that violent situation. This novel clarifies Antoon’s thoughts on death, as well as the violent environment and events that Iraqi citizens were living with in ۲۰۰۳. He uses a specific style of narration and special language to convey these powerful images of death. This article aims at explaining how Antoon uses language to describe death which surrounds him everywhere by using specific literary devices. In addition, the researcher also wants to explain how the goals and intentions of the writer are implicated in the words of the texts and how the image of death is shown perfectly not through pictures but through the use of language. The model of analysis in is Grice’s theory of implicature and the cooperative principles (۱۹۷۵). The method that is used in this research is a qualitative method to have deep examination and understanding of the data of the present study. The results of this study reveal that language can visualize the scene better than pictures do. It is used as a tool to show violence and death that were dominant in Iraqi society at that time. The implied meaning occurs when the speaker violates the relevance, the manner, the quality and the quantity maxims and being uncooperative.

Keywords:

The Corpse Washer , Speech act , Conversational implicature , cooperative principles , Grice