Abstract：Abstract: Readability is not only the life of fiction, but also the ultimate aim of fiction writing. Compared with naturally occurring verbal communication, fictional discourse is embedded with more sophisticated and multi-dimensional impoliteness phenomena to enhance readability. Through the description and analysis of the examples of fictional discourse, this study focuses on the function of different impoliteness strategies in the readability construction of fictional discourse realized at various dialogic layers, namely, character-to-character, narrator-to-narratee and author-to-reader from the perspective of alignment (Kádár & Zhang, 2019). The study proposes an analytic model of the interaction between readability of fictional discourse and impoliteness strategies to provide a tentative approach to the interpretation of literary discourse. The study has the following findings: Firstly, the depiction of the conflicts among characters promotes the plot development, enriches characterization and enhances readability, which are realized by such strategies as code-switching, taboo topics and cursing words. Secondly, the design of the obstacles for understanding between the narrator and the narratee such as non-chronological narration and redundant or simplified narration enhances the readability of the fiction. Thirdly, the initiation of the imagination through paratextual and language style features etc. to pose ‘barriers’ or ‘blanks’ with an aim to enrich the reading experience and enhance readability. Additionally, the study further reveals that alignment between the author and the reader is the driving force of impoliteness in fictional discourse. The study provides a plausible paradigm for the theorization of the impoliteness phenomena in literary discourse.
Key words: readability construction of fictional discourse; impoliteness strategies; alignment
