Documenting the significant impact of linguistic theory on literary studies, this text comprises a collection of key essays and writings which mark the development of stylistics as a discipline, from its formalistic beginnings to the contextualized, discourse-based approaches practised today. The readings are arranged in eight sections, each of which introduces a particular approach: formalist, functionalist, affective, pedagogical, pragmatic, critical, feminist and cognitive. The extracts have been chosen as relevant examples of stylistics, and the collection is prefaced by an extensive editorial introduction which provides an overview of the area, places each piece in its context, and clarifies main points.