Contemporary Stylistics: Language, Cognition, Interpretation

Edinburgh Textbooks on the English Language - Advanced

by Alison Gibbons

How do texts create meaning? How do we arrive at our textual interpretations? Why do we become ‘lost in a book’ or feel deep emotion in response to a literary character? Through close attention to the way texts are written and the language they use, as well as what we know about the human mind, Contemporary Language, Interpretation, Cognition provides readers with the tools to begin answering these questions. In doing so, it introduces the theoretical principles and practical frameworks of stylistics and cognitive poetics, supplying the practical skills to analyse your own responses to literary texts. Including innovative activities for students and with case studies of work by writers like Dylan Thomas, EL James and Kazuo Ishiguro, this is a detailed analysis of contemporary stylistics that offers both historical contextualization of the discipline and points towards its possible future direction. Key

392 pages, Paperback

Published February 16, 2018

Reviews

[Becca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This piece is a compelling and exhaustive depiction of the field in which Stylistics operates. Every chapter is very well organized, though some concepts may remain sometimes unclear (such as focalisation and other narrative instances.).
Other than that, it really helps you get a grasp on the discipline. The part that interested me the most was most definitely the Conceptual Metaphor and the way it impacts even our everyday life and way of thinking.