Stylistics: A Resource Book for Students (Routledge English Language Introductions)

‘This exciting new edition of Paul Simpson’s popular Stylistics captures the latest developments in the field and provides a comprehensive overview of the subject in a clear, accessible, insightful and innovative way. With updated readings by key figures, abundant exercises and sample analyses, this is a one-stop resource for students interested in the theories, concepts and methods of all the major approaches of stylistics.’

Dan Shen, Peking University, China

'This is an engaging and accessible text for both beginners and established scholars in linguistics and literary studies. Simpson persuasively argues for the relevance of stylistics in the modern world and clearly lays out the key principles and analytical tools of the field using excellent illustrative examples. I know of no other book that gives such an elegant and comprehensive overview..

Rodney Jones, City University of Hong Kong

'The second edition of this extremely useful and readable key textbook has been fully updated to cover all essential topics in stylistics, providing an excellent introduction to the central concepts and a valuable guide to the most significant state-of-the-art ideas in the field. This new edition offers interesting and accessible overviews of all core areas, including the most exciting recent developments in corpus, cognitive and multimodal stylistics, many additional thought-provoking activities, and a well-chosen selection of important readings from major scholars.'

Catherine Emmott, University of Glasgow, UK

'Paul Simpson’s Stylistics is a most helpful resource from which EFL learners as well as native speakers of English will benefit. Profound yet exceptionally reader-friendly, the book is an invaluable guide for both students and teachers who are logically led from mastering basics in Introduction, through more advanced applications of the subject in Development, to "field" examples in Exploration and encouragement to read and think more in Extension sections.'

Anna Chesnokova, Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University, Kiev, Ukraine

Assuming no prior knowledge, books in the series offer an accessible overview of the subject, with activities, study questions, sample analyses, commentaries and key readings - all in the same volume. The innovative and flexible 'two-dimensional' structure is built around four sections - introduction, development, exploration and extension - which offer self-contained stages for study. Each topic can be read across these sections, enabling the reader to build gradually on the knowledge gained.

Written in a clear and accessible style, Stylistics, Second Edition is a comprehensive resource which covers all the major theories, concepts and methods required for the investigation of language in literature. From metre to metaphor, dialogue to discourse, the main topics are introduced and fully elaborated, as are the key research paradigms of this important and exciting field of study. Stylistics is richly illustrated with many examples from literary texts, including writing from the established literary canon alongside more contemporary work in poetry, prose and drama. Each of the book's twelve chapters contains clearly framed suggestions for practical work and is accompanied by an original reading on the relevant topic by a world-renowned scholar.

This exciting new second edition builds on the strengths of the first by adding many fresh exercises and worked examples. It captures the latest major developments in stylistics, such as corpus, cognitive and multimodal approaches to the study of style, and its accompanying website has also been substantially revised to feature, amongst other things, useful links, worked examples and a new web strand on style and humour. In addition to the classic readings in stylistics contained in the first edition, the new edition includes a number of recent, stimulating readings by key figures in the contemporary field. Written by an experienced teacher and researcher, this accessible textbook is an essential resource for all students of English language, linguistics and literature.