Literature and Stylistics for Language Learners

Theory and Practice

Edited by

Greg Watson and Sonia Zyngier

Literature and Stylistics for Language Learners

Also by Greg Watson

DOIN’ MUDROOROO: Elements of Style and Involvement in the Early Prose Fiction of Mudrooroo

FINNO-UGRIC LANGUAGE CONTACTS (co-editor)

Also by Sonia Zyngier

AT THE CROSSROADS OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE: Literary Awareness, Stylistics, and the Acquisition of Literary Skills in an EFLit Context

DEVELOPING AWARENESS IN LITERATURE

Literature and Stylistics for Language Learners

Theory and Practice

Edited by

Greg Watson

University of Joensuu, Finland

and

Sonia Zyngier

Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Foreword by Ronald Carter

Selection and editorial matter © Greg Watson and Sonia Zyngier 2007 Foreword © Ronald Carter 2007

Individual chapters © the contributors 2007

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission.

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Literature and stylistics for language learners : theory and practice / edited by Greg Watson and Sonia Zyngier ; foreword by Ronald Carter.

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vi Contents

Part IV Stylistics, Grammar and Discourse

viii Foreword

debates concerning the ownership of English. The growth of stylistic studies of literatures in English, often within a classroom research perspective, is especially marked. The two decades saw a growth in volumes dedicated to these broad pedagogic perspectives (Brumfit and Carter 1986; Short 1988; Durant and Fabb 1990; Widdowson 1975, 1992; Carter and McRae 1996) and a simultaneous growth in classroom-ready textbooks in stylistics (Leech and Short 1981; Short 1996; Simpson 1997; Wales 1990), the latter of which have often exerted real influence in schools where a new generation of teachers of English have embraced the possibilities offered. This is not to say that the developments have not been problematic, as applied, classroom-based pedagogic research has always to some degree been seen (universally) as inferior to ‘pure’ research. But the two decades saw increasing confidence in the field of stylistics, alongside institutional power shifts, and an altogether less defensive stance.

The first decade of the twenty-first century is witnessing less concern with bridges and dividing lines and more a sense that there is much to be done within the interdisciplinary field of stylistics in and for itself with no longer any overriding need to explain or to attack or to defend. The intellectual excitement of cognitive poetics (with its re-tuning of the significance of language processing), the awesome power of corpus linguistics, the depth and richness of studies in narrative analysis, the ever new angles on the literariness of language – all now take place routinely alongside developing opportunities for web-based teaching and learning, the pedagogic possibilities afforded by hypertexts, more refined rhetor- ical-analytical tools, enhanced paradigms for greater empirical investigation, more and more successful integration of quantitative and qualitative methodologies. An ever-greater variety of texts and genres and registers is studied stylistically with increasing numbers now feeling more comfortable than ever before, as a series of books ranging from monographs to dedicated textbooks, internationally refereed journals and new courses are established, increased research grants are secured and international conferences are hosted by a growing body of national associations. It may have been hard but it is no longer as hard as it was. Stylistics people are together and together in larger numbers. They have a sense, like never before, that they are here to stay and it is no big deal now to worry about what part of the linguistic, literary or pedagogic territory they occupy. Although this does not mean that clear orientations are not given, it is up to others to worry about where they stand in relation to stylistics.

Foreword ix

This volume exhibits much of this new-found confidence. Before reading the papers contained here I had doubts and worries, as I always do when picking up new books in the field. I asked myself if there is the danger that stylistics has become a bit complacent. Should we be harder on ourselves? Should we be picking more fights with others outside the field – and with each other? In terms of the above vastly oversimplified history, would there be any significant difference between this volume and other pedagogic volumes from the last decade or two? With a first word of ‘Literature’ in the title of the book would there be enough here of the literary or would the contributions be open to a charge of a lack of criticality and reflexivity of the kind that can sometimes come with an increased strength of identity?

What I have found both challenging (and reassuring because it is challenging) is that this book does not rest on any assumed disciplinary or interdisciplinary laurels, be they methodological, ideological, theoretical or epistemological. Collectively, the authors of the chapter in this book very clearly manifest a continuing endeavour to address and re-address issues surrounding the study of literature and its teaching from a language-based perspective. Some key questions are asked about the relevance of literary stylistics to the literature classroom and new and fresh examples introduced that provide a real stimulus to thinking about textual history in relation to textual stylistics; aesthetic questions are posed alongside the role of critical linguistics in language and literary studies; and the student-centred focus does not eschew difficult questions (questions dear to the heart of teachers of literature), concerning value(s), socio-historical cultures, the student experience of texts and the kinds of personal growth made possible by this engagement. Throughout, there is a steady focus on the kinds of meanings released by careful, systematic and retrievable description of language functions and on the classroom practices, both new and tried and tested, that can help to foster such releases of meaning. Going back to re-read some of the volumes from earlier decades, what strikes me here is a quieter, softer confidence in the range of available methods, a trust in the analytical equipment and a hard-edged belief in the importance of continuing to make analysis open, usable and contestable (because retrievable) by others.

Above all, though, there is also a collective feeling that more still needs to be done. More needs to be invested in new textual theories and analytical frameworks to help us to begin to address the more elusive, even harder questions which are still discussed in relatively loose and uninspected ways by all concerned with text and discourse – literary

x Foreword

specialists, stylisticians and linguists alike: voice, texture, narrative shape, point of view, mood are all concepts, it is suggested, that may be ripe for the next phase of stylistic analysis, pedagogic treatment and theorization. The place of literature in the foreign language classroom as custodian of style and culture, as a guide to moral good conduct, as a warrant of authenticity, or as a mirror to history is universally being questioned; but more research, and more empirical classroom research, is needed to examine the more intricate issues of its relationship to language acquisition, especially reading development. And there is a growing recognition that the field of stylistics is better placed than many to explore the challenge of new media and to explore the literary in terms of the multimodal creation of virtual worlds, drawing on students’ own palpable experience of new representational and poetic clines across fiction and reality, speech and writing, texture and visuality. In its incipient years the field of stylistics cast itself, understandably, in a more ancillary and supportive role; it is now altogether more primary and illustrative.

This is a readable and usable book. A book for teachers and learners and, in the best traditions of the best pedagogic materials for stylistics, also a book for those who just want to read about how texts work. It is a book that both consolidates and extends; it both exhibits real confidence and raises important doubts; it does more than merely or exclusively seek to build bridges or define territory or simply get hard with opponents of the discipline. It is a softer book than others in the tradition. It sees new horizons. And seeing new horizons is always the hardest part of the journey.

RONALD CARTER

School of English Studies

University of Nottingham

Nottingham

UK

References

Brumfit, C. and R. Carter (eds) (1986) Literature and Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Carter, R. and J. McRae (eds) (1996) Literature and the Learner: Creative Classroom Practice. Harlow: Pearson.

Durant, A. and N. Fabb (1990) Literary Studies in Action. London: Routledge.

Foreword xi

Leech G. and M. Short (1981) Style in Fiction. Harlow: Pearson.

Short, M. (ed.) (1989) Reading, Analysing and Teaching Literature. Harlow: Pearson. Short, M. (1996) Exploring the Language of Poems, Plays and Drama. Harlow:

Pearson.

Simpson, P. (1996) Language Through Literature: An Introduction. London: Routledge. Wales, K. (1990) A Dictionary of Stylistics. Harlow: Pearson.

Widdowson, H.G. (1992) Practical Stylistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Widdowson, H.G. (1975) Stylistics and the Teaching of Literature. Harlow: Pearson.