Critical Stylistics

Book excerpt: This original and engaging textbook is concerned with stylistic choices, and the textual analysis which can illuminate the choices that a text producer has made. It combines the strengths of two approaches – critical discourse analysis and stylistics – to uncover the deep-seated ideologies of everyday texts. In so doing, it introduces a comprehensive set of tools which will help readers to explain and analyse the power of written texts. Each chapter focuses on a particular linguistic feature – such as naming and describing, prioritizing, negating, and hypothesizing – gives an overview of its argument and then explains the technical aspects of the feature along with a wealth of examples. This book will be ideal reading for students on a wide range of courses, including stylistics, discourse analysis, critical discourse analysis, English functional grammar and advanced composition.