What is the difference between a good and a bad novel? What makes us lose the "thread" of the story (and interest in the plot and the character)? What it is that interrupts the necessary processes of continuously re-creating the text that are so crucial for text consumption and successful readership? Rooted in the pragmatics of literature, this study presents an inquiry into the way divergent, implicit or explicit, points of view of literary characters ("voices") may clash with each other, thus potentially derailing the entire narrative engine. Inquiring into the ways in which such collisions are caused, observed, and possibly repaired, this book examines the various linguistic and narrative-technical "tricks" that the reader has at his or her disposal in order successfully to follow the narrative and keep the thread of the narrative intact. Contents (extract) Preface Introduction: Literary pragmatics: Why and what? Part One: The sentence: The state of the question The language question Part Two: The voice: Speakability and voice Voice and voice management Voice in focus Voice in transition Part Three: Perspectives: The dialogic perspective The reader perspective The pragmatic perspective Part Four: The text: The voice of the text The speakable text Notes Primary literature References Name index Subject index