Walter Nash, Language in Popular Fiction, Routledge, 2021 [1990]

First published in 1990, Language in Popular Fiction was written to provide a comprehensive and illuminating look at the way language is used in thrillers and romantic fiction.

The book examines the use of language across three interrelated levels: a level of verbal organisation, a level of narrative structure, and a level at which stylistic options and devices are related to notions of gender. It introduces ‘the protocol of pulchritude’ and makes use of detailed stylistic and linguistic analysis to investigate a wide range of ‘popfiction’ and ‘magfiction’. In doing so, it provokes serious reflection on popular fiction and its claims on the reader.

Table of Contents:

1: Prelude: in the airport lounge; 2: Woman’s place: a dip into the magazines; 3: Man’s business: a look round the action story; 4: Beginnings, middles, and ends: some sample pieces; 5: Standard ingredients: faces, places, fights, embraces; Postscript: and so to bed; References and bibliographical note; Index

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