The Vilnius University Stylistics Reading Group was founded in October 2023. Its members, both VU academic staff and students, meet monthly in hybrid mode to discuss published papers in stylistics and related disciplines (for example, discourse analysis, rhetoric, narratology, media linguistics) and to apply their frameworks and methods to poems, short stories, and other pieces of creative writing. The group is run on a Teams page where files are uploaded, and internal communication managed.
The overall aim of the group is to promote language- and text-based (intrinsic) approaches to literature and discourse, as well as to enhance critical thinking by evaluating published research. A related but more specific aim is that of putting to test the replicability and retrievability of stylistics, that is, to see if its methods are rigorous enough as it is usually claimed to enable different researchers to reach similar analytical and interpretive conclusions. It is hoped that new collaborations will ensue from the reading group, including the co-authoring of papers and the organisation of conferences and symposia.
If you are interested in joining the group, or in getting additional information, please contact Davide Castiglione at . Do not worry if you are a newcomer in the field of stylistics: some working knowledge in linguistics/grammar and a passion for literary works is all is required!