‘Abstract future’. Recurrent phraseology in Javier Marías’ Corazón tan blanco (1992)

Abstract

Corazón tan blanco (1992) is probably one of the best known and awarded novels written by Javier Marías. Many scholars have paid attention to this work within narratology and literary criticism approaches. One of the most notorious features of this thriller is its phraseological repetition. Although repetition has been treated by specialists in the work of Marías (Basso 2002, Grohmann 2002, Florenchie 2003, Steen 2011), to our knowledge, there are no studies to date which have quantified this feature systematically. This contribution is based on corpus stylistic approaches, which focuses on the linguistic features in literary works, using corpus methods. Such treatments can be found in the research of Stubbs (2005), Mahlberg & McIntyre (2011), Mahlberg (2013a). This study focuses on the complexity of phraseological repetition and, particularly, in quantifying sequences of five or more elements, but, at the same time, it analyzes how this it contributes to the creative purposes of Marias.