(Manual de Cátedra) Approaching Literary Texts: Theory and Practice

MARÍA ELENA AGUIRRE; MARÍA JOSÉ BUTELER; NOELIA TORTONE; GUILLERMO BADENES; NADIA DER-OHANNESIAN

Impresiones FL de Natalia Rondini

Lugar: Córdoba; Año: 2013 p. 171

978 987 28079 8 6

When we first approach a literary text our response is highly intuitive. We may gain pleasure as well as enlightenment or we may just feel the magic of the text! Contrary to the common view, however, to scrutinize a text paying attention to how texts mean and not just what they mean allow us to become more aware of meaning. That is, to analyze the linguistic features of a text and see how they reinforce meaning or how they even create meaning will help us better interpret the text and become more accomplished readers. Stylistic analysis involves discussing a text in terms of different nterrelated levels of description. We can speak of lexical, morphological, syntactical, phonological, and graphological levels. Lexis includes single words as well as idiomatic word-sequences. Morphology studies the internal structure of words; and syntax refers to sentence-building. Phonology deals with the sound system of a given language so in this area stylistic analysis will refer to sound units, rhythm and intonation. Graphology is the study of a writing system, so at this level the stylistician will focus on orthography, typography, spacing, capitalization, punctuation, and so on. We may take turns and analyze a text at one level or the other but in fact all the levels are interrelated, so the analysis of one particular level will not prevent us from considering the interlevel linguistic relationships in the text. It is a matter of momentarily focusing on one aspect more than on the other, and sometimes, the analysis of one level makes the relevance of another more evident. For the stylist the literary text is solely one object of study, a miniature system.