English 305 - Introduction to Stylistics College of Teacher Education Batangas State University Main Campus I Prepared by: Mam Rej

1. Introduction to Stylistics
COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION
BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY MAIN 1

2. This course is offered to third year students as an
introduction to the study of literary stylistics. This involves
examining the language of literary texts in the three genres
of poetry, prose, and drama, with a view to helping students
arrive at a fuller understanding and appreciation of these
texts.

3. Course requirements
Each student is required to:
1. Take quizzes for the course and 4 major examinations on time
2. Regularly attend the class schedule
3. Submit any given assignment on time
4. Present an individual discussion of the topics given
5. Participate in interactive exercises and questions in each lesson by means
of discussion
6. Submit one term paper: a stylistic analysis of a dramatic text or a
narrative text chosen by the instructor

4. A brief history of Stylistics
1. Stylistics explores how readers interact with the
language of (mainly literary) texts in order to explain how
we understand, and are affected by texts when we read them.
2. The development of Stylistics, given that it combines the use of
linguistic analysis with what we know about the psychological
processes involved in reading, depended (at least in part) on the
study of Linguistics and Psychology (both largely twentieth-century
phenomena) becoming reasonably established.

5. Fowler, Roger (ed.) (1966) Essays on Style in Language. London:
Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Freeman, Donald C. (ed.) (1971) Linguistics and Literary Style.New
York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Leech, Geoffrey N, (1969) A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry.
London: Longman.
Sebeok, Thomas A. (1960) Style in Language. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT
Press.

6. Perhaps the most influential article is that by
Roman Jakobson in Sebeok (1960: 350-77). It is
called 'Closing Statement: Linguistics and
Poetics' because it was a contribution to a
conference which Sebeok (1960) published as a
collection of papers.

7. `
Stylistics can be seen as a logical extension of moves within
literary criticism early in the twentieth century to
concentrate on studying texts rather than authors.
Nineteenth-century literary criticism concentrated on the
author, and in Britain the text-based criticism of the two
critics I. A. Richards and William Empson, his pupil, rejected
that approach in order to concentrate on the literary texts
themselves, and how readers were affected by those texts.

8. This approach is often called Practical Criticism, and it is matched by
a similar critical movement in the USA, associated with Cleanth
Brooks, René Wellek, Austin Warren and others, called New
Criticism.
New Criticism was based almost exclusively on the description of
literary works as independent aesthetic objects, but Practical
Criticism tended to pay more attention to the psychological aspects
involved in a reader interacting with a work.

9. In the early years of the twentieth century, the members of
the Formalist Linguistic Circle in Moscow (usually called the
Russian Formalists), like I. A. Richards, also rejected undue
concentration on the author in literary criticism in favour of
an approach which favoured the analysis of the language of
the text in relation to psychological effects of that linguistic
structure.

10. Why "Stylistics" ?
The term 'Stylistics' became associated with detailed linguistic criticism because, at the time it
developed, the study of authorial style was a major critical concern, and linguistic analysis,
allied to statistics, was popular with the more linguistically inclined critics.
To some degree, it is a less happy name now, as stylisticians have, by and large, moved away
from the study of style and towards the study of how meanings and effects are produced by
literary texts. There have been a few attempts to change the name of the enterprise: for
example to 'literary linguistics' or 'critical linguistics'.
But none of the labels so far proposed covers all the aspects of field adequately (for example
the two just mentioned can just as easily apply to areas not covered by Stylistics and do not
adequately represent the psychological aspects of the approach), and so 'Stylistics' has
survived as the most popular label, despite its shortcomings.

11. The course is divided into four major topics
specifically divided into:
5.1.1. Introduction to Stylistics
5.1.2. Poetry
5.1.3. Prose
5.1.4. Drama

12. Teaching and Learning Strategies
Discussion
Question and Answer
Lecture/ Individual reportage
Audio-Visual presentations
Analysis of Literary Texts
Sharing of Insights
Assessment Methods
Paper and Pencil (e.g. quizzes, long
tests, etc.)
Oral test
Graded Oral Recitation
Group Presentations
Major Examinations

13. Students are required to pass the following as major requirements for the
subject. Failure to submit the following is equivalent to a grade of INCOMPLETE.
8.2.1. Analyses of the following:
7.2.1.1. Cask of Amontillado
7.2.1.2. Tell-tale Heart
8.2.2. Student Written Outputs:
7.2.2.1. A Term Paper

14. Barry, Peter.2002.Beginning Theory: an
introduction to literary and cultural theory.
New York: Manchester United Press
Leech, G.N. and Short M.2007. Style in Fiction,
2nd edition. Longman
Simpson, P.2004. Stylistics: a resource book for
students. Routledge
ACADEMIC INFRASTRUCTURE
Textbook: No textbooks for this course.
References: