A Psycho-Critical Stylistic Study of Denial in Selected English Movies

This work investigates a psychological approach to critical stylistics by Jeffries (2010) through examining denial as a prominent psychological defense mechanism along other related defense mechanisms textually.The methodology integrates critical stylistics (textual scheme) with Freudian theory of denial to bridge linguistic and psychological dimensions.All the textual-conceptual tools of analysis are under scrutiny.The data consists of two psychological movies 'The Others' ( 2001) and 'Shutter Island' ( 2010).The research aims at specifying the linguistic strategies and textual triggers projecting denial.Furthermore, the psychological defenses underpinning such textual choices are investigated.The study comes to the following findings: denial is manifested through all the ten textualconceptual tool of analysis; denial is not merely a cognitive failure but a textually planned self-deception, where textual choices sustain delusions as strictly as psychological defenses; the cinematic denial is not purely psychological rather 'linguistically constructed, proposing a model of analysis for defective discourse across media.This interdisciplinary approach stresses upon the manner language and cognition team up in self-deception.