Stylisctics by Peter Verdonk
Despite the modest size of the manual, Peter Verdonk, a professor at the University of Amsterdam, selected the most essential and compelling aspects of stylistics, allowing the reader to cover the basic concepts of the question. The author describes stylistics not only from a linguistic point of view, but also from a literary angle, thus making the publication attractive to philologists, literary critics, literary scholars and writers.
Based on the "everyday" definitions of the term "style" that could be used in design, music, fashion industry, Verdonk moves to a narrower, linguistic meaning, focusing on the influence of style on the perception of text. And the effect produced by stylistic devices is really striking. To take at least the famous headline of the article about the possibility of life on Mars "Life on Mars - war of the words," published in The Friday Review in 1998. It is full of clinging stylistic devises - ellipse, allusion to the novel "War of Worlds," alliteration. These features make the headline sound expressive.
The chapters on literary representation and interpretation of the text are of particular interest. The author explores the possibilities of language means to express the subjective view of the writer through the lenses of heroes. He shows how the meaning and perception of the whole work will be influenced by the change of the type of a narrative. The main purpose of Verdonk 's research is to demonstrate to the reader the possibility to interpret literary works using a stylistic approach.