Style.

Elements of Style.
The Problem of Translation.

Method Guide to SEMINAR 4

in INTRODUCTION to LITERATURE
For the 1-st year students of English Department

Compiled by

Candidate of Philology Shkuropat M.Y.

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(протокол №1 від 27.08.10)

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SEMINAR4
T O P I C : Literary Language. Style. Elements of Style.
The problem of Translation.
Activity 1
 Read the abstracts from the article “The Art of Literature” by Kenneth
Rexroth (pp.7, 8; pp13-14) and get ready to answer the questions.
Questions
1. What can be observed in some literatures in terms of the use of
language?
2. Has literature always been written in common speech in Western
tradition?
3. Who was the first person in English literature to write in the ordinary
language?
4. What is the reason that the essence of most poetry and prose is
resistant to translation?
5. What should the translator do to establish the equivalence between
the original and the translation?
6. What authors are especially difficult to translate?
7. How can a translation be of greater and of more lasting value than
the work itself?
8. Does only the accuracy of the language form the value of
translation?
9. How can reading of modern translations of ancient texts influence
our understanding of present-day literature?
10. How do form and content relate? (p.13)
11. What is Style? (p.13)
12. What is true about the great style? How do you understand this?
13. What can a style reflect? Give the examples.
14. How do you understand the saying: Literature may be an art, but
writing is a craft?
15. What is the difference between a great stylist and a skilled
practitioner?
Activity 2
 Read the study material on the (pp.3-5). Answer the questions.
Questions
1. What are the definitions of style in literature?
2. What is the origin of the word style?
3. To whom does good style usually appeal? What can be its effect
compared to? What is this effect produced by?
4. In what relation is style to thought?
5. Which one of these imaginable authors should be given higher place?
6. What appears to be the basis of a good style?
7. What is visible in style, so to speak, to the naked eye?
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 8. Can a good style be obtained or it’s an inborn quality?
Activity 3
 Study the GLOSSARY of Elements of Style (pp.6-8). Get ready to speak
about the elements of style.
Definitions of style

The arrangement of words in a manner which at once expresses the individuality of

the author and the idea or intent in his mind

Style, in literature is the mysterious yet recognizable result of a successful blending of

form with content.

Style is also the badge of individuality that distinguishes a good writer from a poor or
mediocre writer.

STYLE, in literature a term which may be defined as language regarded from the point
of view of the characteristics which it reveals a mode or method of working
characterized by distinctive features.

The style of a writer is that writer's self, that it reveals the essence of his 'individuality.

The word is derived from the instrument stilus (wrongly spelled stylus), of metal, wood
or ivory, by means of which, in classic times, letters and words were imprinted upon
waxen tablets. The energy of a deliberate writer would make a firm and full impression
when he used the stylus. Thus it would be natural for anyone who examined several
tablets of wax to say, "The writers of these inscriptions are revealed by their stylus"; in
other words, the style or impression of the implement is the medium by which the
temperament is transferred to the written speech.

Style appeals exclusively to those who read with attention and for the pleasure of
reading. It is not even perceived by those who read primarily for information, and
these form the great majority of readers. The effect on the nature of a human being
which is produced by reading or listening to a book, or a passage from a book, which
that being greatly admired, is often so violent as to resemble a physical shock to the
nerves. It causes a spasm of emotion, which is betrayed by tears or laughter or a
heightened pulse. This effect could not be produced by a statement of the fact
conveyed in language, but is the result of the manner in which that fact is presented.
In other words, it is the style which appeals so vividly to the physical and moral system
of the reader - not the fact, but the ornament of the fact. That this emotion may be,
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and often is, caused by bad style, by the mere tinsel of rhetoric and jangle of
alliteration, is not to the point The important matter is that it is caused by style,
whether good or bad.

Towards the close of the 19th century, it was believed that style is superior to thought
and independent of it. This idea was all wrong, because there’s no doubt that before
there can be style, there must be thought, clearness of knowledge, precise experience,
sanity of reasoning power. It is difficult to allow that there can be style where there is
no thought, the beauty even of some poems, the sequence of words in which is
intentionally devoid of meaning, being preserved by the characteristics of the metre,
the rhymes, the assonances, all which are, in their degree, intellectual in character.

Let’s take three imaginable authors.

The first one has no appreciable style; he has only thoughts.

The second one has thoughts which are as valuable as those of the first one, and he
has an exquisite style as well.
The third one’s style is highly ornamental but his thoughts are valueless.
From the artist's point of view, we are justified in giving the higher place to the Second
one, but in doing this we must not deny the importance of the First one. If we compare
him with some pseudo-philosopher, whose style is highly ornamental but whose
thoughts are valueless, we see that the First one greatly prevails. Yet we need not
pretend that he rises to an equal height with the Second one, in whom the basis is no
less solid, and where the superstructure of style adds an emotional and aesthetic
importance to which the First one's plain speech is a stranger. At the same time, an
abstract style, such as that of some natural scientist’s, for example, may often give
extreme pleasure, in spite of its absence of ornament, by its precise and pure
definition of ideas and by the just mental impression it supplies of its writer's
distinguished vivacity of mind. The abstract or concrete style, moreover, fundamental
brain-work must always have a leading place. So, the necessity of thought is the basis
of good style.

It also remains true that what is visible, so to speak, to the naked eye, what can be
analysed and described, is an artistic arrangement of words. Language is so used as to
awaken impressions of touch, taste, odour and hearing, and these are roused in a way
peculiar to the genius of the individual who brings them forth. The personal aspect of
style is therefore indispensable, and is not to be ignored even by those who are most
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rigid in their objection to mere ornament. Ornament in itself is no more style than
facts, as such, constitute thought. In an excellent style there is an effect upon our
senses of the mental force of the man who employs it.

We discover himself in what he writes, as it was excellently said of Chateaubriand that

it was into his phrases that he put his heart; again, D'Alembert said of Fontenelle that
he had the style of his thought, like all good authors. In the words of Schopenhauer,
style is the physiognomy of the soul. All these attempts at epigrammatic definition tend
to show the sense that language ought to be, and even unconsciously is, the mental
picture of the man who writes.

To attain this, however, the writer must be sincere, original and highly trained. He
must be highly trained, because, without the exercise of clearness of knowledge,
precise experience and the habit of expression, he will not be able to produce his soul
in language. It will, at best, be perceived as through a glass, darkly. Nor can anyone
who desires to write consistently and well, afford to neglect the laborious discipline
which excellence entails. He must not be satisfied with his first sprightly periods; he
must polish them, and then polish them again. He must never rest until he has attained
a consummate adaptation of his language to his subject, of his words to his emotion.
This is the most difficult aim which the writer can put before him, and it is a light that
flits ever onward as he approaches. Perfection is impossible, and yet he must never
desist from pursuing perfection.

This is the danger which lies in wait for those who consider too exquisitely the value
and arrangement of their words. Their style becomes too glossy, too highly varnished,
and attracts too much attention to itself. The greatest writing is that which in its
magnificent spontaneity carries the reader with it in its flight; that which detains him
to admire itself can never rise above the second place. Forgetfulness of self, absence of
conceit and affectation, simplicity in the sense not of thinness or poorness but of
genuineness - these are elements essential to the cultivation of a noble style. Here
again, thought must be the basis, not vanity or the desire to astonish.

There are those who believe that the gift of style is inborn, and will reveal itself at the
moment of mental maturity without any external help. There are others who hold that
no amount of labour is excessive, if it be directed to a study and an emulation of what
are called" the best models.

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ELEMENTS OF STYLE

FIGURES OF SPEECH are expressions that stretch words beyond their literal meanings. By
connecting or juxtaposing different sounds and thoughts, figures of speech increase the
breadth and subtlety of expression.

ALLITERATION: The repetition of similar sounds, usually consonants, at the beginning of

words. For example, Robert Frost’s poem “Out, out—” contains the alliterative phrase “sweet
scented stuff.”

APOSIOPESIS: A breaking-off of speech, usually because of rising emotion or excitement.

For example, “Touch me one more time, and I swear—”

ASSONANCE: The repetition of similar vowel sounds in a sequence of nearby words. For
example, Alfred, Lord Tennyson creates assonance with the “o” sound in this line from “The
Lotos-Eaters”: “All day the wind breathes low with mellower tone.”

CACOPHONY: The clash of discordant or harsh sounds within a sentence or phrase.

Cacophony is a familiar feature of tongue twisters but can also be used to poetic effect, as in
the words “anfractuous rocks” in T. S. Eliot’s “Sweeney Erect.” Although dissonance has a
different musical meaning, it is sometimes used interchangeably with “cacophony.”

CLICHÉ: An expression such as “turn over a new leaf” that has been used so frequently it
has lost its expressive power.

COLLOQUIALISM: An informal expression or slang, especially in the context of formal

writing, as in Philip Larkin’s “Send No Money”: “All the other lads there / Were itching to have
a bash.”

EPITHET: An adjective or phrase that describes a prominent feature of a person or thing.

“Richard ‘the Lionheart’ ” and “ ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson” are both examples of epithets.

EUPHEMISM: The use of decorous language to express vulgar or unpleasant ideas, events,
or actions. For example, “passed away” instead of “died”; “ethnic cleansing” instead of
“genocide.”

EUPHONY: A pleasing arrangement of sounds. Many consider “cellar door” one of the most
euphonious phrases in English.

HYPERBOLE: An excessive overstatement or conscious exaggeration of fact: “I’ve told you

about it a million times already.”

IDIOM: A common expression that has acquired a meaning that differs from its literal
meaning, such as “it’s raining cats and dogs” or “a bolt from the blue.”

LITOTES: A form of understatement in which a statement is affirmed by negating its

opposite: “He is not unfriendly.”

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MEIOSIS: Intentional understatement, as, for example, in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet,
when Mercutio is mortally wounded and says it is only “a scratch.” Meiosis is the opposite of
hyperbole and often employs litotes to ironic effect.

METAPHOR: The comparison of one thing to another that does not use the terms “like” or
“as.” Shakespeare is famous for his metaphors, as in Macbeth: “Life is but a walking shadow,
a poor player / That struts and frets his hour upon the stage.”

MIXED METAPHOR: A combination of metaphors that produces a confused or contradictory

image, such as “The company’s collapse left mountains of debt in its wake.”

METONYMY: The substitution of one term for another that generally is associated with it. For
example, “suits” instead of “businessmen.”

ONOMATOPOEIA: The use of words, such as “pop,” “hiss,” and “boing,” that sound like the
thing they refer to.

OXYMORON: The association of two contrary terms, as in the expressions “same difference”
or “wise fool.”

PARADOX: A statement that seems absurd or even contradictory on its face but often
expresses a deeper truth. For example, a line in Oscar Wilde’s “The Ballad of Reading Gaol”:
“And all men kill the thing they love.”

PARALIPSIS: the technique of drawing attention to something by claiming not to mention it.
For example, from Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick: “We will not speak of all Queequeg’s
peculiarities here; how he eschewed coffee and hot rolls, and applied his undivided attention
to beefsteaks, done rare.”

PARALLELISM: The use of similar grammatical structures or word order in two sentences or
phrases to suggest a comparison or contrast between them. In Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 129”:
“Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.” Parallelism also can refer to parallels between
larger elements in a narrative (see Literary Techniques, below).

PATHETIC FALLACY: The attribution of human feeling or motivation to a nonhuman object,

especially an object found in nature. For example, John Keats’s “Ode to Melancholy”
describes a “weeping” cloud.

PERIPHRASIS: An elaborate and roundabout manner of speech that uses more words than
necessary. Saying “I appear to be entirely without financial resources” instead of “I’m broke”
is an example. Euphemisms often employ periphrasis.

PERSONIFICATION: The use of human characteristics to describe animals, things, or ideas.

Carl Sandburg’s poem “Chicago” describes the city as “Stormy, husky, brawling, / City of the
Big Shoulders.”

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PUN: A play on words that exploits the similarity in sound between two words with distinctly
different meanings. For example, the title of Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being
Earnest is a pun on the word “earnest,” which means “serious or sober,” and the name
“Ernest,” which figures into a scheme that some of the play’s main characters perpetrate.

RHETORICAL QUESTION: A question that is asked not to elicit a response but to make an
impact or call attention to something. For example, the question “Isn’t she great?” expresses
regard for another person and does not call for discussion.

SARCASM: A simple form of verbal irony (see Literary Techniques, below) in which it is
obvious from context and tone that the speaker means the opposite of what he or she says.
Sarcasm usually, but not always, expresses scorn. Commenting “That was graceful” when
someone trips and falls is an example.

SIMILE: A comparison of two things through the use of “like” or “as.” The title of Robert
Burns’s poem “My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose” is a simile.

SYNAESTHESIA: The use of one kind of sensory experience to describe another, such as in
the line “Heard melodies are sweet” in John Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn.”

SYNECDOCHE: A form of metonymy in which a part of an entity is used to refer to the

whole, for example, “my wheels” for “my car.”

TROPE: A category of figures of speech that extend the literal meanings of words by inviting
a comparison to other words, things, or ideas. Metaphor, metonymy, and simile are three
common tropes.

ZEUGMA: The use of one word in a sentence to modify two other words in the sentence,
typically in two different ways. For example, in Charles Dickens’s The Pickwick Papers, the
sentence “Mr. Pickwick took his hat and his leave” uses the word “took” to mean two different
things.