Language in literature : an introduction to stylistics

261 Pages·1998·13.74 MB·English

by  Michael Toolan.

Language in Literature
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MICHAEL TOOLAN
Language in Literature
An Introduction to Stylistics
First published 1998 by Hodder Education
Second impression published 2010 by Hodder Education
Published 2013 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY, 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © 1996 Michael Toolan
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
The advice and information in this book are believed to be true and
accurate at the date of going to press, but neither the authors nor the publisher
can accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Toolan, Michael J.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-340-66213-1. – ISBN 0-340-66214-X (pbk.)
1. Discourse analysis. Literary. 2. Style. Literary. I. Title.
P302.5T66 1997
808’.001’ – dc21
97-17344
CIP
ISBN 13: 978-0-340-66214-4 (pbk)
Typeset in Erhardt by J&L Composition Ltd, Filey, North Yorkshire
Contents
Acknowledgements Vl
Preliminaries Vlll
1. Getting started 1
2. Cohesion: making text 23
3. Modality and attitude 46
4. Processes and participants 75
5. Recording speech and thought 105
6. Narrative structure 136
7. A few well-chosen words 162
8. Talking: acts of give and take 183
9. Presupposit ion 214
References and recommended further reading 245
Index 247
Acknowledgements
The author and publishers would like to thank the following for
permission to reproduce copyright material:
Atwood, Margaret: 'This is a Photograph of Me' from Selected Poems
1965-1975 by Margaret Atwood. Copyright © 1966 by Margaret
Atwood. Reprinted by permission of Stoddart Publishing Company
Ltd.
Crampton, Robert: 'Scouse Grit: Jimmy McGovern' by Robert
Crampton from The Times Magazine, 11 March 1995. Copyright ©
The Times 1995. Reprinted by permisson of Times Newspapers Ltd.
Heaney, Seamus: 'An Ulster Twilight' from Station Island by Sea
mus Heaney. Copyright © 1984 by Seamus Heaney. Reprinted by
permission of Faber & Faber Ltd and Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc.
Horsnell, Michael: 'Maxwell fell overboard "while relieving him
self", says son' by Michael Horsnell from The Times, 21 October
1995. Copyright © Times Newspapers Limited, 1995. Reprinted by
permission of Times Newspapers Limited.
Larkin, Phillip: 'Here' and 'Take One Home for the Kiddies' from
Collected Poems by Philip Larkin. Copyright © 1988, 1989 by the
Estate of Phillip Larkin. Reprinted by permission of Faber & Faber
Ltd and Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc.
Lowell, Robert: 'Inspiration' by Robert Lowell. Copyright © 1997
by Sheridan Lowell and Harriet Lowell. Reprinted by permission of
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc.; 'Skunk Hour' from Life Studies by
Robert Lowell. Copyright © 1956, 1959 by Robert Lowell. Copyright
renewed 1987 by Harriet Lowell, Sheridan Lowell and Carolyn Low
ell. Reprinted by permission of Faber & Faber Ltd and Farrar, Straus
& Giroux, Inc.
Parris, Matthew: 'Speaker chokes on a diet of pickles and beetroot'
by Matthew Parris from The Times, 25 February 1994. Copyright ©
Matthew Parris/The Times 25 February 1994. Reprinted by permis
sion of Times Newspapers Limited.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS VU
Plath, Sylvia: 'Metaphors' from Crossing the Water by Sylvia Plath.
Copyright © 1960 by Ted Hughes. Copyright renewed. Reprinted by
permission of Faber & Faber Ltd and HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Raine, Craig: 'A Martian Sends a Postcard Home' from A Martian
Sends a Postcard Home by Craig Raine. Copyright © 1979 by Craig
Raine. Reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press.
Rich, Adrienne: 'Living in Sin' from Collected Early Poems 1950-
1970 by Adrienne Rich. Copyright © 1993, 1955 by Adrienne Rich.
Reprinted by permission of the author and W. W. Norton & Company,
Inc.
Stevenson, Anne: 'The Marriage' and 'Utah' from Selected Poems
1956-1986 by Anne Stevenson. Reprinted by permission of Oxford
University Press.
Targan, Barry: extract from 'Dominion', first published in The Iowa
Review, 10: 2 (spring 1979), reprinted in the Norton New Worlds of
Literature anthology, ed. Jerome Beaty and J. Paul Hunter, 1989.
Reprinted here by permission of the author.
West, Richard: 'Still Dark' book review by Richard West from the
Daily Telegraph 18 May 1984. Reprinted by permission of the author.
'Awaiting Mandela' from The Economist, 6 January 1990. Copyright
© The Economist, London, 1990. Reprinted by permission of The
Economist.
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders of material, and
those who hold the rights to the reproduction of material. Any rights
not acknowledged here will be acknowledged in subsequent printings
if notice is given to the publishers.
Preliminaries
The goal of this book is to sharpen your awareness of how language
works in texts - particularly, here, in literary texts. Doing this will
involve some use of linguistic terms and concepts, and some attention
to grammar. While I do not want to resort to technical description any
more than seems reasonable, such resort often does seem reasonable to
me. Appropriate linguistic terms and descriptions can articulate an
inward understanding of the workings of a language, and can situate
the verbal technique of a particular text among the range of available
repertoires for writing and speaking, aIid the variety of kinds of text
and kinds of language use that exist.
The focus will be on texts - poems, short stories, extracts from
novels, advertisements, children's writing, etc. Sometimes those texts
may strike you as difficult if not impenetrable, but more often they
will not be so hard to understand. So it will not be the case, usually,
that we are looking at these texts as problems which, with our shar
pened language focus, we can solve. Instead, our general assumption is
that these texts are evidently solutions or achievements - often bril
liant ones. And we are trying to understand and even explain how
those solutions work, and to see just where the brilliance or ingenuity
lies, assisted by linguistic terms and ideas and an increased awareness
of language resources and language structure. That, in essence, is what
I mean by the term (Literary) Stylistics, which is used often in this
book (an alternative label for this approach is Literary Linguistics).
Stylistics is the study of the language in literature.
The basic procedure of the book will be to explain, briefly, some
topic in the language structuring of texts, and then to assist the reader
to apply that knowhow in analysing particular literary texts. Some
times this may feel like mere labelling, using exotic linguistic terms to
describe familiar material. But the important point is that the labels to
be applied are not empty ones: they have content. That is to say, they
represent specific and substantiated insights concerning the structure
of texts, and the nature of language communication. So although
PRELIMINARIES lX
labelling is involved in Stylistics, this labelling is not trivial. The labels
are a way of describing the given literary text, and they contribute to
an explanation of that text.
For example, you might want to undertake a systematic study of the
naming practices in a novel. You could look at whether protagonists
are named via a pronoun (e.g., she), or by a proper name (Clarissa
Dalloway) or by various definite descriptions (the woman; the fluttering
sparrow; the elegantly dressed matron); you might well want to see how
often a protagonist is named in these different ways, and with what
kinds of definite descriptions, what kinds of pronoun (e.g. thou vs. you
in Early Modern English texts), and so on. Becoming more sensitive
to particular contexts, you might well want to consider any disparities
in naming in relation to two or more characters appearing in the same
scene. The facts about the text that we separate out in this way, facts
about protagonist-naming, are then a usable description of just that
aspect of the text: the facts and claimed patterns can be confirmed or
corrected, they can be discussed with others, and their significance in
apprehending the text as a whole can be debated. So one of the crucial
things attempted by Stylistics is to put the discussion of textual
effects and techniques on a public, shared, footing - a footing as
shared and established and inspectable as is available to informed
language-users, who agree that she is a pronoun, herself a reflexive
pronoun, Clarissa a proper name, and the vivacious white-haired
woman a definite description.
The other chief feature of Stylistics is that it persists in the attempt
to understand technique, or the craft of writing. If we agree that
Hemingway's short story 'Indian Camp', and Yeats's poem 'Sailing
to Byzantium', are both extraordinary literary achievements, what are
some of the linguistic components of that excellence? Why these
word-choices, clause-patterns, rhythms and intonations, contextual
implications, cohesive links, choices of voice and perspective and
transitivity, etc. etc., and not any of the others imaginable? Conversely,
can we locate the linguistic bases of some aspects of weak writing, bad
poetry, the confusing and the banal?
Stylistics asserts we should be able to, particularly by bringing to
the close examination of the linguistic particularities of a text an
understanding of the anatomy and functions of the language. The
celebrated Socratic phrase 'the examined life' is often invoked to
remind us of our need to subject all our behaviour to rational and
moral self-scrutiny; Stylistics nails its colours to an analogous slogan,
the need for and value of 'the examined text'. In summary, Stylistics is
crucially concerned with excellence of technique; traditionally, its
attention has been directed to such excellence of craft in works of
literature, but clearly there is no intrinsic reason why it cannot equally