Critical Stylistics

We tend to think that politicians, copywriters and journalists can affect us by their use of language, but how does this happen, exactly? Critical Discourse Analysis provides us with general theories for explaining the impact texts can have, considering the social and political contexts in which texts are produced and read. Stylistics provides detailed tools of analysis for understanding how texts work. Critical Stylistics combines the strengths of these two approaches to uncover the deep-seated ideologies of everyday texts.

Original and engaging, Critical Stylistics:

• presents a new amalgamation of stylistics, critical discourse analysis and functional approaches to grammar
• introduces a comprehensive set of tools to help explain and analyse the power of written texts
• examines a wide variety of real texts and provides a wealth of practical worked examples

We tend to think that politicians, copywriters and journalists can affect us by their use of language, but how does this happen, exactly? Critical Discourse Analysis provides us with general theories for explaining the impact texts can have, considering the social and political contexts in which texts are produced and read. Stylistics provides detailed tools of analysis for understanding how texts work. Critical Stylistics combines the strengths of these two approaches to uncover the deep-seated ideologies of everyday texts.

Original and engaging, Critical Stylistics:

• presents a new amalgamation of stylistics, critical discourse analysis and functional approaches to grammar
• introduces a comprehensive set of tools to help explain and analyse the power of written texts
• examines a wide variety of real texts and provides a wealth of practical worked examples

LESLEY JEFFRIES is Professor of English Language at the University of Huddersfield.  She was Chair of the Poetics and Linguistics Association from 2007 to 2009 and is the author of books including Discovering Language: The Structure of Modern English (Palgrave 2006) and Textual Construction of the Female Body (Palgrave 2007).