The Stylistics Reader

Book excerpt: "The Stylistics Reader" documents the significant impact of linguistic theory on literary studies. It brings together in one accessible volume key essays and writings which mark the development of stylistics as a discipline from its formalist beginnings to the contextualized, discourse-basedapproaches practised today. The carefully selected readings are arranged in eight sections, each of which introduces a particular approach: formalist, functionalist, affective, pedagogical, pragmatic, critical, feminist and cognitive.The extracts included have been chosen to provide a full sense of what stylistics is all about. The collection is prefaced by an extensive editorial introduction which provides an overview of the area, places each piece in its context and clarifies its main points. There are suggestions for furtherreading as well as notes and references for each essay.