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Towards a Theory of Creative Stylistics by Yosliifuini Saito, MA

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Towards a Theory of Creative Stylistics by Yosliifuini Saito, MA STYLE AND CREATIVITY: Towards a Theory of Creative Stylistics by Yosliifuini Saito, MA 't'hesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, May, 1997 4.0 INTRODUCTION 143 4.1 CREATIVITY IN LINGUISTIC AND LITERARY ACTIVITIES 4.1.1 Traditional Idea of Creativity in Linguistic and Literary Activities 146 4.1.2 Creativity in Reading 148 4.13 Creativity in Writing 150 4.1.4 Creativity in Conversation 152 4.1.5 Cognitive Development or'Creative Language Awareness' 153 4.2 RHETORIC 153 4.3 LINGUISTIC IMPERIALISM 157 4.4 CHECKLIST FOR CREATIVE LANGUAGE AWARENESS 4.4.0 Introduction 161 4.4.1 Intention 161 4.4.2 Message, Theme, or Motif 162 4.43 Text Type 163 4.4.4 Setting and Characterization 163 4.4.5 Narrative Structure and Point of View 164 4.4.6 Tense and Time-Shift 166 4.4.7 Syntactic Choice 167 4.4.8 Lexical Choice 168 4.4.9 Phonological Choice 170 4.4.10 Graphological Choice 170 4.4.11 Metaphor and Symbolism 171 4.4.12 Cohesion, Coherence, and Overall Textual Patterning 173 4.5 AUTONOMY OF TEXT 174 4.6 SUMMARY 175 V CONTENTS ABSTRACT vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1 HISTORY OF STYLISTICS 1.1 GENERAL OUTLINE 12 1.2 FRENCH SCHOOL 15 13 RUSSIAN-FORMALIST JAKOBSONIAN SCHOOL 13.1 Russian Formalism 21 1.3.2 Roman Jakobson 22 133 Prague Linguistic Circle 25 1.4 GERMAN SCHOOL 1.4.1 Vossler 26 1.4.2 Spitzer 27 1.43 Auerbach 29 1.5 BRITISH SCHOOL 1.5.1 Practical Criticism: I. A. Richards 30 1.5.2 Leavisism 33 1.5.3 Literary Stylistics 36 11 1.5.4 Linguistic Stylistics 43 1.5.5 Pedagogical/Practical Stylistics 47 1.6 SUMMARY 54 CHAPTER 2 THEORY OF STYLISTICS 2.0 INTRODUCTION 57 2.1 DEFINITION OF STYLE 2.1.0 Introduction 57 2.1.1 Style as Idiolect 60 2.1.2 Style as Ornamentation 61 2.13 Style as Choice 62 2.1.4 Style as Deviation 65 2.1.5 Style as Coherence 69 2.1.6 Style as Connotation 71 2.2 DEFINITION OF STYLISTICS 2.2.0 Introduction 73 2.2.1 Stylistics as a Branch of Linguistics 74 2.2.2 Stylistics as a Branch of Literary Criticism 78 2.23 Stylistics as an Interdisciplinary Field 79 23 OTHER THEORETICAL PROBLEMS 2.3.1 Subcategorization of Stylistics 85 2.3.2 What is Literary Language? 89 233 Fish 'Hook' 91 23.4 Interpretation 93 2.4 SUMMARY 98 III CHAPTER 3 REARRANGEMENT OF THE PRINCIPLES OF STYLISTICS 3.0 INTRODUCTION 101 3.1 LINGUISTIC STYLISTICS 3.1.1 Theoretical Problem 106 3.1.2 Selection of the Text and the Analytical Strategy 108 3.13 Analysis 111 3.1.4 Testing the Idiolectal Cognitive Model 113 3.1.5 Conclusion 115 3.2 LITERARY STYLISTICS 3.2.1 Aim 116 3.2.2 Intuitive Response 117 3.2.3 Literary Background 118 3.2.4 Linguistic Strategies 121 3.2.5 Analysis 124 3.2.6 Conclusion 133 33 PEDAGOGICAL STYLISTICS 33.1 Languageand/or Linguistics? 133 33.2 Gap-filling for Understanding Discourse 134 3.3.3 Imagining Contexts of Situation 136 33.4 Sensitizationto Languageof Literature 138 33.5 Conclusion 139 3.4 SUMMARY 139 CHAPTER 4 THEORY OF CREATIVE STYLISTICS iv 4.0 INTRODUCTION 143 4.1 CREATIVITY IN LINGUISTIC AND LITERARY ACTIVITIES 4.1.1 Traditional Idea of Creativity in Linguistic and Literary Activities 146 4.1.2 Creativity in Reading 148 4.1.3 Creativity in Writing 150 4.1.4 Creativity in Conversation 152 4.1.5 Cob itive Developmentor'Creative LanguageAwareness' 153 4.2 RHETORIC 153 4.3 LINGUISTIC IMPERIALISM 157 4.4 CHECKLIST FOR CREATIVE LANGUAGE AWARENESS 4.4.0 Introduction 161 4.4.1 Intention 161 4.4.2 Message, Theme, or Motif 162 4.43 Text Type 163 4.4.4 Setting and Characterization 163 4.4.5 Narrative Structure and Point of View 164 4.4.6 Tense and Time-Shift 166 4.4.7 Syntactic Choice 167 4.4.8 Lexical Choice 168 4.4.9 Phonological Choice 170 4.4.10 Graphological Choice 170 4.4.11 Metaphor and Symbolism 171 4.4.12 Cohesion, Coherence, and Overall Textual Patterning 173 4.5 AUTONOMY OF TEXT 174 4.6 SUMMARY 175 V CHAPTER 5 PRACTICE OF CREATIVE STYLISTICS 5.0 INTRODUCTION 178 5.1 CREATIVE PROCESS 5.1.1 Intention 179 5.1.2 Setting and Characterization 180 5.1.3 Narrative Voice and Point of View 180 5.1.4 Syntacitic Choice 182 5.1.5 Title and Symbolism 182 5.1.6 Graphological Choice 183 5.1.7 Intertextuality 184 5.2 CREATED TEXT 185 5.3 POSSIBILITIES OF PEDAGOGICAL APPLICATIONS 191 CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 6.1 CONCLUSIONS 205 6.2 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 207 REFERENCES 211 vi between language and literature, since it has hardly paid attention to the issue of the creativity of style and language; (c) that, in order to establish stylistics as a truly interdisciplinary field of study between linguistic and literary studies, we need to take up the classical idea of rhetoric with its prescriptive function as well as the new idea of 'creative language awareness' in order to open up the domain of stylistic study for the purpose of textual creation; (d) that, as the descriptive analyses of traditional stylistics should be retrievable, so the processes of creative stylistics should be replicable for any creatively-motivated writer, irrespective of the kind of text he or she is trying to create; (e) that, by being replicable, the theory of creative stylistics would be extraordinarily useful in pedagogical contexts in helping language learners both to improve their skills in writing and to sensitize themselves to language and literature; and (f) that creative stylistics is designed to explore and exploit the possibilities of breaking down the native/non-native opposition in English studies and of bridging native/non- native cultural gaps in aesthetic creation. viii ABSTRACT The purpose of this thesis is to present a new theory of creative stylistics as an antithesis to traditional description-oriented stylistics. For this purpose it undertakes: (1) a selective historical survey of stylistics with special attention to its academic formation in the context of the theoretical dissociation between linguistics and literary criticism (Chapter 1), (2) a theoretical survey of stylistics with special attention to the way it has been defined and subcategorized (Chapter 2), (3) a rearrangement of various stylistic theories according to the criterion of purpose, and a cognitively oriented demonstration of redefined linguistic, literary, and pedagogical stylistics (Chapter 3), (4) a theorization of creative stylistics as a prescriptively oriented discipline complementing the descriptivism of traditional stylistics, in terms of the cognitive processes of textual creation (Chapter 4), and (5) a demonstration of creative stylistics through an examination of my own literary writing, together with a discussion of further pedagogical and cross-cultural issues arising from this (Chapter 5). Through these chapters I make it clear. (a) that the theoretical proliferation, the variety of nomenclature, and the arbitrary sub- categorization of stylistics has made this discipline seem more complicated than it really is; (b) that stylistics has so far only followed the courselaid down by descriptive linguistics and literary criticism, and hasnot yet fully explored or exploited the dynamic interaction vii between language and literature, since it has hardly paid attention to the issue of the creativity of style and language; (c) that, in order to establish stylistics as a truly interdisciplinary field of study between linguistic and literary studies, we need to take up the classical idea of rhetoric with its prescriptive function as well as the new idea of 'creative language awareness' in order to open up the domain of stylistic study for the purpose of textual creation; (d) that, as the descriptive analyses of traditional stylistics should be retrievable, so the processes of creative stylistics should be replicable for any creatively-motivated writer, irrespective of the kind of text he or she is trying to create; (e) that, by being replicable, the theory of creative stylistics would be extraordinarily useful in pedagogical contexts in helping language learners both to improve their skills in writing and to sensitize themselves to language and literature; and (f) that creative stylistics is designed to explore and exploit the possibilities of breaking down the native/non-native opposition in English studies and of bridging native/non- native cultural gaps in aesthetic creation. viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I thank all those friends and colleagues who have helped me to complete my Ph.D research. Among them I am particularly grateful to Paul Rossiter, George Hughes, Brendan Wilson, Sandra Lucore, and John Boccellari, who gave me detailed and informative comments on my draft thesis. I am also indebted to a number of stylisticians, linguists, and literary scholars, especially to Mick Short, Roger Fowler, and Alan Durant, who were generous enough to spend some of their precious time for me and provided me with valuable pieces of information on historical and institutional backgrounds of stylistics. I particularly value the constructive criticisms of my supervisor, Ronald Carter, who has encouraged my stumbling efforts to theorize my idea of creative stylistics. Finally I thank SAITO Yuko and SAITO Masafumi for their patient support. ix INTRODUCTION What is stylistics? What is its aim? How does it function? Is it a branch of literary criticism, or of linguistics? If it is neither, how does it differ from them, and how does it cooperate with them? And, if it is concerned in some way or other with linguistic and literary studies, has it fully examined, or more importantly, exploited the relationship and interaction between language and literature? These are the questions which this thesis tries to examine and answer.
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