You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
A particularly fruitful development in literary studies has been the application of ideas drawn from linguistics. Precise analytical methods help the practical criticism of texts, while at the same time the theory of language has illuminated literary theory. Linguistic Criticism is an accessible introduction to this often confusing subject. Fowler sets out clearly and simply a variety of analytical techniques whose application he demonstrates in discussions of a wide range of texts drawn from fiction, poetry, and drama. He concentrates on structures that relate literature to ordinary language, stressing the importance of the reader's everyday language skills. This second edition has clarified and expanded sections on the role of the reader in literary criticism and includes more twentieth-century texts and examples.
We are living in a time of rapid radical social change. In New Accents each volume in the series will seek to encourage rather than resist the process of change, to stretch rather than reinforce the boundaries that currently define literature and its academic study. This volume explores new approaches in the criticism of fiction.
Newspaper coverage of world events is presented as the unbiased recording of `hard facts`. In an incisive study of both the quality and the popular press, Roger Fowler challenges this perception, arguing that news is a practice, a product of the social and political world on which it reports. Writing from the perspective of critical linguistics, Fowler examines the crucial role of language in mediating reality. Starting with a general account of news values and the processes of selection and transformation which go to make up the news, Fowler goes on to consider newspaper representations of gender, power, authority and law and order. He discusses stereotyping, terms of abuse and endearment, the editorial voice and the formation of consensus. Fowler's analysis takes in some of the major news stories of the Thatcher decade - the American bombing of Libya in 1986, the salmonella-in-eggs affair, the problems of the National Health Service and the controversy of youth and contraception.
This book, first published in 1987, differs from many other ‘dictionaries of criticism’ in concentrating less on time-honoured rhetorical terms and more on conceptually flexible, powerful terms. Each entry consists of not simply a dictionary definition but an essay exploring the history and full significance of the term, and its possibilities in critical discourse. This title is an ideal basic reference text for literature students of all levels.
Originally published in 1979. This book studies language variation as a part of social practice - how language expresses and helps regulate social relationships of all kinds. Different groups, classes, institutions and situations have their special modes of language and these varieties are not just stylistic reflections of social differences; speaking or writing in a certain manner entails articulating certain social meanings, however implicit. This book focuses on the repressive and falsifying side of linguistic practice but not without recognising the power of language to reveal and communicate. It analyses the language used in a variety of situations, including news reporting, interviews, rules and regulations, even such apparently innocuous language as the rhymes on greetings cards. It argues for a critical linguistics capable of exposing distortion and mystification in language, and introduces some basic tools for a do-it-yourself analysis of language, ideology and control.
Covering both established terminology as well as the specialist vocabulary of modern theoretical schools, this is an indispensable guide to the principal terms and concepts encountered in debates over literary studies in the twenty-first century.
Transformational syntax is an analytic technique of grammatical description which has exciting psychological and philosophical ramifications inspiring creative research into the conceptual powers and behaviour of man. In this book, first published in 1971, the author suggests that the techniques of the classical period (1964-66) of transformational syntax provide the securest foundation for syntactic analysis, and are indispensable if students are to understand recent changes to the analytical technique. This title will be of interest to students of language and linguistics.
George Orwell is well known for his strong views on language, society and politics, and admired for the robust, personal tone of his writings. The Language of George Orwell, the first detailed study of his style, demonstrates his stylistic versatility, and analyzes the linguistic techniques which create a variety of memorable effects in his novels and other prose works. Roger Fowler is a leading exponent of linguistic criticism, the method of analysis employed in this book.
It is widely recognized that language is humanity’s most distinctive and valuable faculty. In this work, originally published in 1974, Roger Fowler explains the character and absorbing interest of language. Designed as an introductory text for students and others concerned with human communication, the book is clearly and concisely written, yet it in no way oversimplifies its rich and complicated subject. The opening chapters set the scene by a discussion of the power of language in the social and psychological life of a man, while the main body of the book is an introduction to linguistics, the science of language study. Coverage is provided of the main topics in linguistic description â€...