INTRODUCTORY LECTURE BY PROF. MIKE KURIA

WHAT IS STYLISTICS? Method of textual interpretation in which primacy is assigned to language. Literary texts Newspapers Speeches etc Literature usually the focus of stylistics but: – Creativity and innovation in language, not exclusive to literature – Focus on stylistics is not just about language itself and the use but also about accessing the meaning of texts Interested in language as function of texts in context and acknowledges that utterances are produced in time, place and culture. – Description of language therefore must be sensitive to context: culture, history, etc. – (Use excerpts- or mind your language clip) Explores the creative use of language

THE PURPOSE OF STYLISTICS Enriches our way of thinking about language Enhances our understanding of literary texts Explores language in its bent, distended or stretched to breaking point. Could think about in three Rs: – Stylistic analysis should be RIGOROUS – Stylistic analysis should be RETRIEVABLE – Stylistic analysis should be REPLICABLE

RIGOROUS Should be based on an explicit frame of reference: – Not driven by my impressionism but by: Structured models of language Discourse that explains how we process and understand various patterns of language.

RETRIEVABLE Analysis is organized through explicit terms and criteria the meanings of which are agreed upon by other students of stylistics Other scholars should be able to follow the paths we follow in interpreting a text and understand There is a fairly agreed upon set of meanings attached to terms used in stylistics. This is what enables a meaningful discourse on the meaning of texts The stylistic method anyone uses is therefore retrievable.

REPLICABLE The methods of analysis should be sufficiently transparent as to be verifiable – By applying them to the same text – Testing them against other texts The conclusions reached are principled if the path followed by the analysis is accessible and replicable- its like a science method. Stylistics therefore distances itself from a work that proceeds solely from untested or untestable intuition.

WHAT STYLISTIC CRITICS DO Describe technical aspects of the language of a text and then use the data in interpretation Purpose: to provide objective linguistic data to support intuitive reading of texts To provide a new reading of texts- to challenge on older version of reading To demonstrate that literature is part of a common universe of discourse- not mysterious Can also focus on other types of writing such as newspaper articles etc- because language operates in similar ways there too. Moves beyond sentence grammar to text grammar to focus on how texts work as a whole to achieve their purpose: to amuse, create suspense or to persuade

CONCLUSION Its important for the student of literary stylistics to master the technical terms of stylistics and be able to use them to discourse on texts with experts in the field. The objective of this course will be to ensure that: – Students are able to define key terms in stylistics – Be able to identify devices used in texts by their technical terms – Use the technical terms to access and articulate the meaning of texts.