Stylistic Manipulation of the Reader in Contemporary Fiction

Review “This is a wide-ranging and fascinating collection of essays on how texts manipulate readers – and how readers manipulate texts – as well as a real demonstration of the breadth and depth of contemporary stylistic inquiry.” ―Sam Browse, Senior Lecturer in English Language, Sheffield Hallam University, UK Product Description This book focuses on how readers can be 'manipulated' during their experience of reading fictional texts and how they are incited to perceive, process and interpret certain textual patterns. Offering fine-grained stylistic analysis of diverse genres, including crime fiction, short stories, poetry and novels, the book deciphers various linguistic, pragmatic and multimodal techniques. These are skilfully used by authors to achieve specific effects through a subtle manipulation of deixis, metalepsis, dialogue, metaphors, endings, inferences or rhetorical, narratorial and typographical control.Exploring contemporary texts such as The French Lieutenant's Woman, The Remains of the Day and We Need to Talk About Kevin, chapters delve into how readers are pragmatically positioned or cognitively (mis)directed as the author guides their attention and influences their judgment. They also show how readers' responses can, conversely, bring about a certain form of manipulation as readers challenge the positions the texts invite them to occupy. About the Author Sandrine Sorlin is Professor of English Language and Linguistics at University Paul Valéry of Montpellier 3, France.DAN McINTYRE is Senior Lecturer in English Language at the University of Huddersfield, UK.Louise Nuttall is Senior Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at the University of Huddersfield, UK. Her research explores stylistic applications of Cognitive Grammar and reader experiences of fictional minds. She is co-editor of Cognitive Grammar in Literature (with Chloe Harrison, Peter Stockwell and Wenjuan Yuan, John Benjamins, 2014). Her first published article in Language and Literature won the 2015 PALA Prize.