Literature about Language

ISBN-13: 9780415069977 / Angielski / Miękka / 1993 / 192 str.

Valerie Shepard; Valerie Shepherd

Opis

In Literature About Language Valerie Shepherd brings together linguistic theory and literary criticism and examines languages as a theme in a range of literary texts. By looking at the work of writers such as Swift, Joyce and Sontag she discusses the power of story-telling and metaphor to shape our thinking and examines the communicative capacities of non-standard English and the strengths of women's writing in a male language world. By turning to the work of writers such as Hardy, Cummings, Lodge and Gordimer, however, she also demonstrates the ways in which language can be constrained by its users and by social and cultural pressures.
Written specifically for a student audience, Language About Literature presumes no prior knowledge of linguistic theory and each chapter concludes with a set of practical exercises.
An invaluable text for A-level and undergraduate students of language, literature and communication studies.

Spis treści

Introduction: Literature about language 1 The human capacity for language The Inheritors by William Golding 2 Linguistic creativity and limitation ‘my sweet old etcetera’ by e.e. cummings 3 Sound and meaning ‘The upper birch-leaves’ by Thomas Hardy 4 Making meaning Susan Sontag’s essay ‘AIDS and its metaphors’ and Eva Salzman’s poem ‘Time out’ 5 The narrative art of language Poetry by Elizabeth Jennings and the short story ‘Eveline’ from James Joyce’s Dubliners 6 Standard and Non-standard English The Dorset poetry of William Barnes, with reference to Tennyson’s Lincolnshire monologues and Tom Leonard’s Glasgow poems 7 The language of women and men ‘Nervous prostration’ by Anna Wickham with particular reference to Jonathan Swift’s ‘The furniture of a woman’s mind’ 8 The power of discourse David Lodge’s novel Nice Work and poetry by Tom Leonard 9 The signalling of meaning

O autorze

Valerie Shepard