A particularly fruitful development in literary studies has been the application of ideas drawn from linguistics. Precise analytical methods help the practical criticism of texts, while at the same time the theory of language has illuminated literary theory. Linguistic Criticism is an accessible introduction to this often confusing subject. Fowler sets out clearly and simply a variety of analytical techniques whose application he demonstrates in discussions of a wide range of texts drawn from fiction, poetry, and drama. He concentrates on structures that relate literature to ordinary...

Newspaper coverage of world events is presented as the unbiased recording of hard facts. In this study of both the quality and the popular press, Roger Fowler challenges this perception, arguing that news is a practice, a product of the social and political world on which it reports. Writing from the perspective of critical linguistics, Fowler examines the crucial role of language in mediating reality. Starting with a general account of news values and the processes of selection and transformation which go to make up the news, Fowler goes on to consider newspaper representations of gender,...

A twenty-first century version of Roger Fowler s 1973 Dictionary of Modern Critical Terms, this latest edition of The Routledge Dictionary of Literary Terms is the most up-to-date guide to critical and theoretical concepts available to students of literature at all levels.

With over forty newly commissioned entries, this essential reference book includes:

• an exhaustive range of entries, covering such topics as genre, form, cultural theory and literary technique
• new definitions of contemporary critical issues such as...

George Orwell is well known for his strong views on language, society and politics, and admired for the robust, personal tone of his writings. The Language of George Orwell, the first detailed study of his style, demonstrates his stylistic versatility, and analyzes the linguistic techniques which create a variety of memorable effects in his novels and other prose works. Roger Fowler is a leading exponent of linguistic criticism, the method of analysis employed in this book.