BBL 3207 Language in Literature

1. BBL 3207 Language in Literature Some texts are born literary, some achieve literariness, and some have literariness thrust upon them. (Terry Eagleton, 1996:7)

2. Doing literature has often been seen as a daunting task for beginning literature students, especially for those who have not had much experience with reading literature at school. The fear of literature arises out of uncertainties about what literature is and what doing literature involves as it is often misconstrued that literature tends to be overwhelmingly subjective or impressionistic in practice.

3. What does this course do? • A literature course that foregrounds language use is one which actually acknowledges that no other field utilizes language in the way that literature does. Language is the tool with which the writer crafts his/her works, producing aesthetic forms which are multilayered in their meaning and design. This course, Language in Literature, brings together the two fields of study, language and literature, by spotlighting language use in the study of literary texts.

4. What else does the course do? • The course looks at the use of language in literary texts as a methodical approach in the study of literature, and explores and challenges definitions of literature in the process. By identifying language as a way into reading and interpreting literature, the course hopes to convince students that literature can be accessible to all through a systematic approach in reading it provided by the method in language studies known as linguistic criticism, or stylistics.

5. Why Language in Literature? • What is literature without language? Arguments about what literature is, in other words, the problematics of definitions of literature tend to revolve around the question of what is literary language and also the question of whether there is such thing as the literariness of texts. It is clear that to study the language of literature is inevitable in the study of literature, and a big chunk of literary criticism is concerned with looking at the language of texts.

6. Origins? • Traditionally, the study of language in literature traces its roots back to the time of the Greek theatre when the study of language and literature was inseparable; meaning that if you study language, you study literature and vice versa.

7. Today? • Today, literature and language studies have become two separate fields of study. With attention given to linguistics (the scientific study of language) and the study of grammar, it is only later with the rebirth of literature within English studies that literature became a recognised academic field of study at universities.

8. What happened to literature? • Literature had to fend for itself due to the exclusion of language as the new discipline (linguistics) claimed for itself the right to investigate language as a comprehensive system. Hence, literary criticism, in playing its role mainly as a civilising influence, confined itself to the practice of the appreciation of literary aesthetics and the imparting of moral values.

9. Therefore? • This course reflects a move towards an arguably more objective way of reading literature, through the use of linguistic tools as a means to reading literature. The return to language as the centre in the interpretation of literary texts provides a more ‘scientific’, rigorous and systematic approach, thus offering an alternative method to the ‘impressionistic’ traditional practical criticism.

10. Linguistic criticism and stylistics The approach of centering language and using linguistic tools in the study of literature is becomingly widely known as linguistic criticism, or more traditionally, as stylistics.