ABSTRACT
In many fictional narratives, there exists a ‘covert progression’, a thematic-aesthetic undercurrent paralleling the plot development throughout the text. The language choices in the covert progression, in comparison with those in the plot development, are often more closely connected with the extra-textual context. There are various kinds of relationships between the covert progression and the plot development, ranging from harmonious complementation to radical subversion. This chapter focuses on one kind of complementary relation: The plot development is concerned with family or personal conflict, but the linguistic choices in the covert progression centre on the conflict between individual and society. The texts chosen for illustration are Kafka’s ‘The Judgment’ and Mansfield’s ‘The Singing Lesson’. Significantly, the thematic function of the subtle linguistic patterning in the covert progression cannot be fully understood unless biographical and historical contexts are taken into account. The stylistic uncovering of the covert progression, that is to say, enables us to gain not only a fuller picture of the text, but also a better understanding of the interrelation between language, text and context.
