ABSTRACT
It has been stressed throughout this book that the approach that has been outlined is meant to serve an essentially pedagogic purpose: to develop in learners an awareness of how literature functions as discourse and so to give them some access to the means of interpretation. It should be noted that the claim is not that stylistic analysis can replace literary criticism but that it can prepare the way for it to operate more effectively. The value of stylistic analysis is that it can provide the means whereby the learner can relate a piece of literary writing with his own experience of language and so extend that experience. The establishment of such a relationship can then serve as a base from which literary criticism, or rather a teaching approach deriving from it, can conduct its operations. Seen in this light, the kind of approach presented in this book is (in most teaching situations at least) a necessary stage on the way to literary appreciation. But this does not mean that it is sufficient as a means of expressing the full range of response which a particular work of literature might stimulate.
