Stylistics and the Form/Content Dichotomy

Can linguistic theories and methods be useful to the literary critic? The advocates of stylistics have long thought so, and in this work the author explores the benefits of stylistics over more traditional methods of analysis. Extra levels of meaning created through foregrounded elements form the basis of the discussion of Peake’s Gormenghast and Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, and the author returns to Bronte’s novel in the final chapter to consider how the use of literary allusion helps the reader to create meaning. Pratchett’s use of free indirect discourse in Going Postal is explored through linguistic theories of conversational management and Paul Simpson’s transitivity and modality frameworks shed light on fictional point of view in Gilman’s The Yellow Wall-Paper. The author also asks whether or not form and content are inseparable in a literary text through questioning the existence of an exclusively ‘literary’ language and discussing past attempts to isolate the paraphrasable element of a given utterance. This book will be of interest to all lovers of literature who are keen to read criticism that engages first and foremost with the language of the text.