The Echoes of Drunkenness: Paralanguage in L’Assommoir by Émile Zola

Abstract

Paralanguage brings together all the audible phenomena that enter into interaction during a communicative act. In a literary text, it has the function of bringing sound effects. Thanks to these elements, we can hear what is only written: noises, the most subtle breaths or even silences. In everyday life, we do not perceive all the sounds in the same way, our brain makes a selection according to what interests us, but in the literature all the noises are important, because they are consciously chosen by the author, often for a deliberate purpose; they create a definite background, reflect a judgment, specify the meaning of the action and the thoughts of the characters