Course Name: Introduction to Literary Stylistics

Course Code: LIT 1202

Credit Unit: 3

Course Description

This course is a follow up of Semester One course LIT 1102: Language and Literature. While LIT 1102 focus on the nature of language as a general medium of communication and its relationship to literature, this course deals with the entire process that produces the literary text. The aim is to equip the student with means to competently accessing the meaning of the literary text by giving him/her a thorough understanding of the background issues that determine and inform the style of the literary text, as well as the various factors that govern the way language operates in a literary text.

Course Objectives

To expose students to a set of analytical tools that can be used to examine texts.

To help students recognize the relationship between levels of language, linguistic choice, style and meaning

To guide students to recognize the link between stylistic features and interpretation

To equip students with the ability to identify and recognize modes of patterning and rhetorical organization in the text

Detailed Course Curriculum

Introduction to the subject of literary stylistics

Stylistics and the teaching of literature

Stylistics, style and interpretation

Stylistics and reader intertextuality

Practical criticism critical linguistics and literary stylistics

Discourse centred sytlistics

Oral models in major genres

Style content and audience

Elements of style and literary production:

Author, setting, and background,

Story, plot and structure

Characterisation and subject matter

Style and the reception of literature

Meaning between the lines

Techniques for stylistics analysis

Gender, language and style

Speech and silence

Genre and style in literature

Style in prose

Style in drama

Poetic uses of language

Style in other forms of communication

Literary criticism and critical terminology

Expected Outcome

By the end of the course the learner should:

(i)be able to recognize and employ the tools and terminology of literary stylistics in discussion and writing.

(ii)be able to discuss the role of stylistics in literature as a means of reflecting and shaping thoughts and behaviour.

(iii)be able to identify and recognize modes of patterning and rhetorical organization in the text.

Mode of Delivery

  • Lectures
  • Group discussions
  • Tutorials

Mode of Assessment

  • Course work and oral presentations will constitute 30%
  • Final Examination will constitute 70%

References

  1. Fowler, R. 1996. Linguistic Criticism, OUP,
  2. Glencoe, M. 1991. Appreciating Literature,
  3. Gregoriou, Christiana. 2008. English Literary stylistics, Palgrave Macmillan Leech, G.N and Short M. H , 1981, Style in Fiction, London: Longman,
  4. Montgomery, M, et al. 2004. Ways of Reading, New York: Routledge
  5. Short, Mick. 1996. Exploring the Language of poems, Plays and Prose, London: Longman.
  6. Traugott A.C and M.L. Pratt. 1980. Linguistics for Students of Literature, York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, Inc.