‘You're a F**ing Liar’: Pragmastylistic Approaches to (Im)politeness, Storytelling, and Untruthfulness in Fargo (1996)

Recent studies in telecinematic stylistics employ pragmatic models, such as (im)politeness, to account for interactions between characters and thus provide explanations for how viewers may perceive and interpret these texts (Dynel, 2017; McIntyre & Bousfield, 2017). Interactional storytelling is another important – yet often overlooked – part of telecinematic discourse. Film discourse is full of stories – characters tell one another stories, elicit storytelling, and co-tell stories. Tellability is a key concept in the study of interactional storytelling, denoting the tension between the believability and worthiness of the tale (Bowles, 2010). Therefore, the present chapter proposes a novel approach, drawing on pragmastylistic analysis of (im)politeness (Dynel, 2017; McIntyre & Bousfield, 2017; Culpeper, 2011) and conversation analysis (Bowles, 2010) to explore the interactional nature of interpersonal storytelling in fictional dialogue. The hypothesis that interpersonal storytelling can either aim to cause or mitigate offence is examined, with a particular focus on the previously unexplored intersections between (im)politeness and (un)truthfulness (crises of tellability, accusations of lying, deception as a face threatening act, etc.). This innovative model of analysis is applied to Fargo (1996) – an Oscar-winning black comedy crime film written and directed by the Coen brothers. The study focuses on inter-character dynamics, including narrative nastiness, navigation of co-telling and counter-telling, tellability, and (im)politeness in requests for, or to, stories. The analysis accounts for how (im)polite storytelling is functional to the stylistic aspects of the film, including conflict, characterisation, humour, dramatic tension, plot development, and escalation of violence.