Anecdote as a Persuasive Stylistic Technique in Pusonnam Yiri's Blindness of Mind: No one is Useless

Abstract

The paper explores anecdotes as a stylistic technique in the language of persuasion using samples from Yiri’s Blindness of the Mind (2011). It attempts a textual analysis of some extracts from the novella using a Functional Stylistics Framework of M. A. K. Halliday. It analyses the writer’s ability to manipulate situations with the addition of verbal language to convey, persuade, influence and project convincing messages to persons in order to achieve or elicit specific positive results. This paper focuses on anecdotes and how they advance the plot of the text. The study equally examines the metaphorical manipulation of language through anecdotes to support an opinion and also to catch the reader(s) attention. It foregrounds the persuasive importance of anecdotes by bringing to the fore the anecdotal evidence deployed. The analyses show that anecdotes have effectively helped to enhance the linguistic and literary/aesthetic appeal of the text. It concludes that anecdotes are creative and active ways often used to gain the reader’s interest in the written text. This persuasive technique is used not only to draw the reader (audience) into an argument or reasoning but also to reinforce, re-orientate, incite, subvert, clarify or simplify a particular point in an apt and forceful manner.