Style in Literature: A Practical Analysis to Literary Approach

by John Mugubi, Evan Mwangi (Foreword)

When approaching a literary work, we have a propensity to harp on `what', that is, the issues that a literary work contains or propagates at the expense of 'how' the issues are brought to the fore. Content cannot be articulated through sheer nothingness. Content cannot just bafflingly drop from heaven like manna. Content in Literature can only be expressed through utilization of particular linguistic and paralingual items in a particular way. This means that without form, there is no content. On the other hand, one cannot just have a form that conveys vacuity. Style has to transmit or be made of some content. Subsequently, an interpretation of literary matter that endeavours to compartmentalize these two core aspects (style and theme), as if they could subsist apart from each other is utterly flawed. In this book, the writer therefore endeavours to show how form and content in Literature are inseparable entities and how a profitable analysis of Literature demands an approach that investigates how each of these aspects impacts upon the other.

240 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 4, 2018