Stylistics and Contemporary Fiction

Abstract

Stylistics is the study of language patterns in texts and of the meaningful relationship between linguistic choice and literary interpretation. Stylistic apply the most up to date theories from linguistics and language study to analyse both the production and interpretation of texts and aim to offer precise, robust and non-impressionistic accounts of literary reading. The discipline’s roots can be traced right back to classical studies of rhetoric and, in the twentieth century, to traditions and practices developed in both Europe (e.g., Formalism, Structuralism) and the United States (e.g., New Criticism) all of which made the language of the text being analysed a central consideration. Over time, stylistic have continued to draw on the latest insights from linguistics, adopting those theories, methods and frameworks which have proved to have the most currency and, above all, are inherently practical. In turn, a set of working practices and principles for the field has been identified.