Stylistic Approaches to Pop Culture

Description

This collection showcases the unique potential of stylistic approaches for better understanding the multifaceted nature of pop culture discourse. As its point of departure, the book takes the notion of pop culture as a phenomenon characterized by the interaction of linguistic signs with other modes such as imagery and music to examine a diverse range of genres through the lens of stylistics. Each section is grouped around thematic lines, looking at literary fiction, telecinematic discourse, music and lyrics, as well as cartoons and video games. The 12 chapters analyze different forms of media through five central strands of stylistics, from sociolinguistic, pragmatic, cognitive, multimodal, to corpus-based approaches. In drawing on these various stylistic frameworks and applying them across genres and modes, the contributions offer readers deeper insights into the role of scripted and performed language in social representation and identity construction, thereby highlighting the affordances of stylistics research in studying pop cultural texts. This volume is of particular interest to students and researchers in stylistics, linguistics, literary studies, media studies, and cultural studies. Cover Half Title Series Information Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Contributors Acknowledgments 1 Zooming In: Stylistic Approaches to Pop Culture 1 Language, Linguistics, and Pop Culture 2 The Relevance of Stylistics for Pop Culture 3 Current Stylistic Strands and Pop Cultural Texts 4 An Outline of the Volume Note References 2 Misdirection (re)strategizing in Robinson’s A Dedicated Man 1 Introduction 2 Plot Summary, Material, and Research Question 3 Outline of Cognitive Stylistic Theory and Techniques 4 Cognitive Stylistic Analysis 4.1 Emma’s Suspect List Placement: Opportunity, Motive, and Physical Capability 4.2 Emma’s Appearance 4.3 Emma’s Behavior 4.4 Emma and Michael’s Affair 4.5 Michael’s Behavior 4.6 Michael’s Suspect List Placement: Motive and Opportunity 4.7 Michael and Penny’s Break-Up 5 Conclusion Notes References 3 From Pop Fiction to Televisual Adaptation: A Corpus-Stylistic Approach to Dead Until Dark and True Blood 1 Introduction 2 The Southern Gothic: Race and Sexuality 3 Methodology 4 Results and Discussion 5 Conclusion Notes References 4 Communicative and Linguistic Features of Reality Show Interactions: A Case Study of Love Island UK 1 Introduction 2 Communicative Context 2.1 A Communication Model of the Love Island Reality Show 2.2 Direction of Communication 2.3 Contextual Features of Love Island 3 Data and Methodology 4 Results 4.1 Keywords 4.1.1 Keywords Related to Relationships and Feelings 4.1.2 Keywords Related to Life in the Villa 4.1.3 Contextually Related Keywords 4.1.4 Swear Words and Expletives 4.1.5 Forms of Address 4.2 Multi-Word Units 4.3 Pronouns 4.4 Key 4-Grams 5 Discussion 6 Conclusion Acknowledgments Note References 5 Ideological Stance-Taking in Jane the Virgin: Stylistic Effects of Multimodality and Code-Switching 1 Introduction 2 Standard Language Ideologies and Stance-Taking in Telecinematic Discourse 2.1 Standard Language Ideology 2.2 Ideological Alignment as Stance 2.3 Multimodal Stance-Taking 3 Data and Method: Jane the Virgin 4 Analysis of Stance in Jane the Virgin 4.1 Linguistic Repertoires as Stance 4.2 Code-Switching as Stance Marker 4.2.1 Spanish as In-Group Code 4.2.2 English as Citizenship Code 4.3 Multimodal Narration as Stance Marker 4.3.1 Multimodal Interaction With the Audience (S01E10, Ten) 4.3.2 Multimodal Calls for Action (S02E05, Twenty-Seven) 4.3.3 Multimodal Stance Cues (S04E15, Seventy-Nine) 5 Conclusion: Stance as Styling Notes References 6 Suspense in Film Dialogue: Screening Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight 1 Introduction 2 Suspense as the Result of Narrative Techniques 3 Pragma-Stylistic Approaches to Suspense 4 Foundations of Suspense in The Hateful Eight 5 Pragma-Stylistic Strategies of Constructing Suspense in the Film 5.1 Sequential Organization 5.2 Communicative Non-Cooperation 6 Conclusion References 7 The Art of Turn-Taking in Movie Phone Call Openings 1 Introduction 2 Phone Call Openings 2.1 The Default Structure of Phone Call Openings 2.2 Speaker Identification and Recognition 3 Data and Methodology 4 Openings in Movie Phone Calls 4.1 Identification and Recognition 4.2 On Sequential Deletion 4.3 Topic Starters 5 Conclusion Notes References 8 The Arctic Monkeys Live at the Royal Albert Hall: Investigating Turner’s “Lounge Singer Shimmer” 1 Introduction 2 Staged Performances and Style 2.1 From American Pop to Indie Rock 2.2 From “Indie Rock Rawness” to “Lounge Singer Shimmer” 2.3 Approaching Turner’s Live Performance Persona 3 Analyzing Turner’s Live Performance 3.1 Live at the Royal Albert Hall (2020) 3.2 Phonetic Features 3.3 Auditory Phonetic Analysis 4 Results: Turner’s Live Performance 5 Discussion 6 Conclusion Notes Audio Sources References 9 “Guess Who’s Back, Back Again”: Stylistic Development in Eminem’s Lyrics 1 Introduction 2 Data and Method 3 Results 3.1 The Global Picture 3.2 Artistic Phases 3.3 Profanities Longitudinally 4 Discussion and Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes References 10 New York City Dialect, Speech Acts, and Anti-Blackness in Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland 1 Introduction and Literature Review 1.1 Overview of the Little Nemo Cartoon Series 1.2 Narrative Structure and Characters in Little Nemo 2 Sociolinguistic Work On Comic Books 2.1 Sociolinguistics of Writing 2.2 English in New York City 3 Speech Act Theory 4 Data and Methodology 5 Analysis 5.1 Flip’s Speech Patterns: Syntax and Phonology 5.2 Speech Acts 5.3 Anti-Black Discourse 6 Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes References 11 The Stylistic Journey of a Video Game: A Diachronic Approach to Multimodality in the Football Manager Series 1 Introduction 2 Theoretical Underpinnings: Multimodality and Video Game Stylistics 3 Corpus and Methodological Procedures 4 Results 5 Discussion 6 Conclusions, Limitations, and Future Directions Notes References 12 Stylistic Approaches to Pop Culture: An Afterword References Index