The Language of Literature An Introduction to Stylistics

Essential study guides for the future linguist. The Language of Literature is a general introduction to the methods and principles behind stylistics. It is suitable for advanced level students and beyond. Written with input from the Cambridge English Corpus, it provides students with an introduction to stylistics with texts from different genres. It takes the approach that the best way to study literary texts is to focus closely on language. Using short activities to help explain analysis methods, this book guides students through major modern issues and concepts. It summarises key concerns and findings, while providing inspiration for language investigations and non-examined assessments (NEAs) with research suggestions.

1. What is stylistics?: 1.1. Introduction; 1.2. Defining stylistics; 1.3. Why stylistics?; 1.4. Principles of stylistics; 2. Developing a stylistics toolkit: 2.1. Introduction; 2.2. Foregrounding; 2.3. Using levels of language analysis; 2.4. Words; 2.5. Structure; 2.6. Sounds; 2.7. Developing writing as a response; 3. Doing stylistics: 3.1. Introduction; 3.2. Speech and thought presentation; 3.3. Modality; 3.4. Transitivity; 3.5. Deixis and viewpoint; 4. Stylistics and the mind: 4.1. Introduction; 4.2. Figure and ground; 4.3. Schema theory; 4.4. Metaphor; 4.5. Text World Theory; 5. Exploring stylistics: 5.1. Introduction; 5.2. Creative writing and stylistics; 5.3. Reader response studies and stylistics; 5.4. Corpus stylistics; Ideas and answers; References.