STYLISTIC

S
ANDREA S. RUIZ,ED.D
Style

a person’s distinctive language habits or the set of individual characteristics of

language use.
Stylistics

Is a method of textual interpretation in

which primary of place is assigned to
language.
Usually we look for these when reading a literature

Ideas
Situation
Themes
characters
Nature and Goals of Stylistics
Stylistics
Deals with the significance of the literary style,
language of the writers, literary devices and
techniques that writers employ.
Style as a CHOICE
True!– nervous– very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but will
you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses– not–
destroyed– not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard
all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How,
then, am I mad? Hearken! And observe how healthily– how calmly I can tell
you the whole story.

Edgar Allan Poe- Tell-tale Heart

 Style as a DEVIATION
Anyone lived in a pretty how town
By EE cummings
Anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many bells
down)
Spring summer autumn winter he
sang his didn’t he danced his did.
Women and men (both little and
small) cared for anyone not at all
They sowed their isn’t they reaped
their same
Sun moon stars rain.
Style as a TEMPORAL PHENOMENON
Style as a INDIVIDUAL
Style as a SITUATION
LOOKING AT THE PICTURE
Elements of Style in Literature
Character Development
Dialogue
Foreshadowing
“ I shall not die of a cough’” Fortunato says

“True– true,” Montresor replies

- The Cask of Amontillado

By Edgar Allan Poe
Symbolism
IMAGERY
In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Romeo describes his first sight of
Juliet with rich visual imagery:

O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!

Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night,
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear
IRONY
For there lay the Combs- the combs that Della had seen in a shop
window and loved for a long time. Beautiful combs, with jewels
perfect for her beautiful hair. She had known they cost too much
for her to buy them. She had looked at them without the least
hope of owning them. And now they were hers, but her hair was
gone.
- The Gift of Magi, o’Henry