“Ye Quaint Little Islanders”: Language behaviour of the British stereotype in G.B. Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra
“Ye Quaint Little Islanders”: Language behaviour of the British stereotype in G.B. Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra

Summary/Abstract: This paper is a part of a larger project on the language behaviour of different ethnic groups in Shaw’s plays. It focuses on the British ethnic stereotype as it emerges from the playwright’s ideology of the end of the 19th century, and tries to answer the question: which are those social variables that shape the identity of the characters, and which relate to their social and language behaviour. It focuses on two characters, Britannus and a “hidden one”, who can also be considered to be the representatives of the English stereotype. The paper investigates the characters’ linguistic manifestations as reflections of their ethnic identity, revealing those special discourse strategies which exhibit another ethos of communication, differentiating them from other characters in the play.

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