Introducing Stylistic Analysis: Practising the Basics

Carry out basic stylistic analyses of different text types using a range of stylistic frameworks Includes 25 do-it-yourself boxes containing tasks for use in the classroom or at home Includes recommendations for further reading, a glossary and answer key Provides a methodological toolkit to enable students to develop the skills and confidence to carry out independent analysis Offers a reader-friendly account of the story of stylistics from its early days to present-day developmentsDraws on texts including Wants by Phillip Larkin, Indian Women by Shiv K. Kumar, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Shakespeare’s King Lear, Mark O'Connor’s Half an Hour After and The Brain is Wider than the Sky by Emily Dickinson If you are an English language learner meeting stylistics for the first time, this textbook will familiarize you with the basic terms and key concepts. And if you are taking an undergraduate stylistics course and you need help on analyzing texts, you will find here a step-by-step guide to analyzing different text types using a defined selection of stylistic frameworks. You will be introduced to the analysis of poetry, fiction, drama, humorous writing, advertising, political texts and online journalism and offered guided practice in a range of methodologies, with a particular focus on functional and pragmatic stylistics. The opening chapter introduces you to the key foundational terms and concepts, covering dialect, register, field, tenor, mode, choice, deviation, and foregrounding. The remaining chapters guide you from theory into practice. Each stylistic analysis chapter starts with a summary of the methodological toolkit that will be used, followed by systematic and guided stylistic analysis of a particular text type and plenty of practice activities.