Tag: Ivor Armstrong Richards

I am happy to share that my new research article, titled “Principles of … stylistics: The central place of IA Richards’ principles of literary criticism in a theory of stylistics” has just been published online and is open access in Language and Literature, a leading journal of stylistics. The article is part of a special issue (edited by David West) aimed at assessing the significance of I. A. Richards‘ 1924 masterpiece of aesthetics and criticism in the context of contemporary stylistics.

In my theoretical paper I examine at length Richards’ ambivalent attitude towards imagery, the troubled route between stimulus and response, the tension between the richness of literary experience and the reductionist requirements of experimental research, and the stratification and location of literary effects. In short, I attempt to show how I. A. Richards, a century later, can still help us make stylistics better. Indeed, in this article I make some proposals that will definitely inform much of my future scholarly work, so it is a sort of preview of such work as well as an evaluation of the work already done (by others and by myself).

Click here to access the full article and… happy reading!