Intersubjective politeness in a Charlie Chan detective story : a case of intercultural facework

This paper explores the representation of cultural identities in fictional dialogic interactions, focusing on a famous (and controversial) detective from the 1930s novels by E.D. Biggers, Charlie Chan, linked to the model minority Chinese stereotype, which implies traits like modesty and self-representation. Chan’s (stereo)typical politeness is expressed in the dialogues that represent the backbone of the novels, involving the main character and his suspects. The fictional nature of the dialogues makes them particularly interesting, as the intercultural exchange is conceived by a Western author, who stages his characters complying with stereotyped models and with a view to the expectations of his intended (Western) audience. The dialogic interactions examined in this paper are from Bigger’s novel The Black Camel (1929), and involve Chan and Tarneverro, an ambiguous character who offers his assistance to Chan, while remaining a suspect. In the dialogues, the two resort to recurring strategies which will be analyzed in the framework of intercultural politeness theories, with specific attention to their relevant linguistic traits. On the one hand, facework depends on their different roles in the investigation; on the other, different stereotypical cultural traits may lead to the exploitation of a different set of strategies.