In:Practising Stylistics: Essays in Honour of Paul Simpson
Edited by Clara Neary, Simon Statham and Peter Stockwell
[Linguistic Approaches to Literature 45] 2026
► pp. 253–268
Chapter 20Characterisation and adaptation of the drunken Dr Quirke
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Abstract
Drawing on the stylistic model of narrative communication offered by Simpson and Montgomery (1995), in this chapter Simon Statham assesses the characterisation of John
Banville’s/Benjamin Black’s Dr Quirke. Focusing on selected scenes when the enigmatic and often inebriated pathologist is
drunk, Statham combines the elements of this model of narrative structure with the stylistic indicators for drunken characters
in fiction set out by Rundquist (2020) to assess the novel Christine
Falls (2006) and its television adaptation (2014). In so doing, Statham not only adds to ongoing stylistic
research on how language constructs characterisation, but also, in his successful demonstration of how stylistics can account
for the migration of an unconventional crime fiction story from page to small screen, illustrates how fictional works that may
be viewed as somehow resistant to literary criticism can be more amenable to stylistic analysis.
Article outline
- Benjamin Black, Quirke and crime fiction
- Narrative components of Christine Falls
- Characterisation of drunken Dr Quirke
- Conclusion
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