Journal of Literary Theory (JLT)

7 : 1-2, JLT; Universität Würzburg

Selleri, Andrea; Universität Würzburg

Authorship, Authenticity and the Perceptual/Non-Perceptual Divide [Abstract]

Wilde, Lukas R.A.; Eberhard Karls-University of Tuebingen, Institute of Media Studies

Conference Report: Transmedial Worlds in Convergent Media Culture. [Transmedial Worlds in Convergent Media Culture, Tübingen, February 2014.]

Schreier, Margrit; Jacobs University Bremen

The World of Fiction, Dreams, and Research: How Literature Works its Spell. [Keith Oatley, Such Stuff as Dreams. The Psychology of Fiction, 2011.]

Borkowski, Jan; Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

Heine, Philipp David; Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

Ziele der Literaturgeschichtsschreibung [Abstract]

Srinivasan, Shiva Kumar; International Institute of Planning & Management (IIPM) Chennai

What is Bloomian Poetics? [Harold Bloom, The Anatomy of Influence: Literature as a Way of Life, 2011.]

Schröter, Julian; Universität Würzburg

Intentionalistische, erklärende, kognitive und geisttheoretische als naturalistische Hermeneutik: Konsolidierung oder Kontroverse? [Luigi Cataldi Madonna (Hg.), Naturalistische Hermeneutik, 2013.]

Kuzmičová, Anežka; Department of Literature and History of Ideas, Stockholm University

Outer vs. Inner Reverberations: Verbal Auditory Imagery and Meaning-Making in Literary Narrative [Abstract]

Göb, Christine

 1 
Christine Göb 
 
Exercises in Style: 
Everything You Need to Know Beginning in the Field of Stylistics 
 
• Nina Nørgaard/Beatrix Busse/Rocío Montoro, Key Terms in Stylistics. (Key terms 
series) London/New York: Continuum 2010. 269 p. [Price: EUR 24,56]. ISBN: 978-
0-8264-1948-4. 
 
 
Key Terms in Stylistics is part of the key term series that aims at providing undergraduates 
with comprehensive introductory information on linguistic core topics. The series structures 
its volumes according to a pattern that might differ slightly from topic to topic but always 
covers the three categories key terms, key thinkers and key texts. This way of processing lin-
guistics’ main fields of research is indeed a sensible approach if the declared objective is to 
offer a first comprehensive overview of the respectiv  fields. In the case of Key Terms in Sty-
listics the authors modified the predefined structure by choosing to include an additional 
chapter that outlines the various branches of stylistics composing this highly interdisciplinary 
field. When Nørgaard, Busse and Montoro define stylistics as »the study of the ways in which 
meaning is created through language in literature as well as in other types of text« (1), they 
make right from the beginning a point of showing that stylistics has developed into a wide 
field that no longer restricts its objects of study to literary texts but includes »non-fictional 
forms such as advertising, academic writing, news repo ts as well as non-printed forms such 
as TV and pictorial advertising, film, multimodal publications, etc« (ibid.). This enumeration 
already suggests through the underlying broad definition of ›text‹ that stylistics has moved far 
beyond the notions of Russian Formalism on which stylistics heavily relied when it first be-
came an academic discipline to be taken seriously in the 1960s. Today, stylistics has devel-
oped into an academic discipline with various branches reaching from formalist stylistics over 
corpus, critical, pedagogical, multimodal, functionalist stylistics to more reader-oriented ap-
proaches such as cognitive stylistics etc. 
 
The inclusion of a chapter solely concerned with a brief but precise introduction of each 
branch is in line with the goal of the series to give a comprehensive overview of the field. 
However, to adhere to the objective of providing undergraduate students with introductory 
(meaning easily comprehensible) information on the field of stylistics that are comprehensive 
(meaning that extensive and detailed insight into the field should be given) at the same time is 
not an easy task. It is indeed an exercise in style. Nørgaard, Busse and Montoro meet this 
challenge when they make full use of the conception of the series by applying the technique 
of cross-referencing. Their introduction comprises all information necessary to get a good first 
impression of what stylistics is and how it developd historically as an academic discipline. 
The brief historical overview of the branches of styli ics included in the introduction summa-
rizes what is dealt with more extensively in the succeeding chapter. This makes it easier for 
the student who is just beginning in the field of styli tics to put into context the explanations 
of the branches of stylistics that are to follow. The chapters on key branches, key terms and 
key thinkers are then structured like a reference book listing its entries in alphabetical order. 
The advantage of making the field of stylistics accessible by resorting to the structure of a 
reference book is obviously that specific terms, concepts etc. are easy to find. However, a 
decisive disadvantage is that contextualization becomes increasingly difficult, especially if the 
field of stylistics is terra incognita. Nørgaard, Busse and Montoro solve this problem in two 
ways: Firstly, through the chapter sequence, and secondly, through the use of a reference 
 2 
structure. In order to have undergraduate students develop a deeper understanding of the field, 
it makes sense to first introduce the branches of stylistics since they comprise information on 
different approaches, key thinkers, key concepts, theoretical models etc. Keeping the entries 
relatively short, the referencing of relevant and important scholars, concepts or theoretical 
models allows the student to customize his further reading to his individual needs. This way 
two types of students are well served: Students who already have knowledge of the field can 
use Key Terms in Stylistics as reference book to quickly look up what they already know they 
are looking for. Students first dealing with stylistic  are not confronted with lengthy chapters 
but are offered concise and informative entries instead that provide them with contextualizing 
references they can use as extensively as needed. Th  idea to have students adapt what and the 
extent of what they read to their individual needs within the process of making the field of 
stylistics accessible to themselves is a valuable approach in two respects. On the one hand it 
encourages students to systematically structure and monitor their research; on the other hand 
students can adjust the reading material to their learning and studying preferences. Therefore, 
Key terms of Stylistics serves students well not only from a pedagogical point of view but also 
from the perspective of cognitive sciences. 
 
Key Terms in Stylistics offers everything one should know about this flourishing discipline. 
Especially the section on stylistics’ key branches is helpful in developing a critical under-
standing of the discipline. The authors provide the criticism of each branch and show how this 
criticism has lead to the development of new branches and hence its contribution to the over-
all development of the field. The emergence of functio alist stylistics for example can be seen 
as a direct consequence of the critique of formalist stylistics for its »overriding interest in lin-
guistic form at the expense of considerations about the function and effects of the formal fea-
tures put up for examination« (25). As for the key t rm section the selection of key terms 
comprises stylistic devices, linguistic paradigms, core concepts such as ›foregrounding‹ and 
theories underlying the different stylistic approaches. Although the single entries try to point 
out the relevance of the term for the field of styli tics, the reader is additionally supported in 
his contextualization through cross-referencing that w s introduced in the chapter on the key 
branches and is continued in the section on key thinkers. Alongside key stilisticians and the 
summary of their works, ideas, and contributions to the field of stylistics scholars whose con-
tribution to linguistic paradigms that have somehow informed the field are also included in 
the section on key thinkers. When this section is complemented with a list of key texts for 
further reading it becomes once more apparent that the authors are extremely committed to 
providing the reader with a comprehensive overview of stylistics as a full-fletched academic 
discipline. Their writing is clear and concise and tries to include as many application exam-
ples as possible to make the field, its branches and co cepts even more accessible for under-
graduate students. 
 
Key Terms in Stylistics meets not only the goal set by the series in which it has been published 
but also the objective that it has set itself: It »provides the reader with an overview of the sty-
listic tool box, the tools available in it, the different linguistic paradigms and branches of sty-
listics which have produced/ or employed the tools as well as key thinkers in the field« (6). 
The reader has the chance to almost hermeneutically use this book to develop a profound un-
derstanding of stylistics in which there can be no doubt as to the enriching interdisciplinarity 
of a discipline that can no longer be regarded as amere method, but has to be accepted as an 
independent field of research. 
Christine Göb 
University of Göttingen 
Courant Research Centre »Text Structures« 
 3 
2013-05-24 
JLTonline ISSN 1862-8990 
 
Copyright ©  by the author. All rights reserved. 
This work may be copied for non-profit educational use if proper credit is given to the author 
and JLTonline. 
For other permission, please contact JLTonline. 
 
 
 
 
How to cite this item: 
 
Christine Göb, Exercises in Style: Everything You Need to Know Beginning in the Field of Stylistics. (Re-
view of: Nina Nørgaard/Beatrix Busse/Rocío Montoro, Key Terms in Stylistics. London/New York: Conti-
nuum 2010.) 
In: JLTonline (24.05.2013) 
Persistent Identifier: urn:nbn:de:0222-002455 
Link: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0222-002455 


Exercises in Style: Everything You Need to Know Beginning in the Field of Stylistics [Nina Nørgaard/Beatrix Busse/Rocío Montoro, Key Terms in Stylistics, 2010.]

Heise, Andreas

Schiffbruch mit standhaftem Kapitän – eine sagbare Tragödie [Frank Habermann, Literatur/Theorie der Unsagbarkeit, 2012.]

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