Stylistic reading of Faith Ben-Daniels’ A Quarter Past Midnight (2013)
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Abstract
Style constitutes a central resource through which writers construct meaning, evoke emotion, and shape reader response, functioning across every level of language from word choice to discourse structure. This paper, titled “A Stylistic Reading of Faith Ben-Daniels’ A Quarter Past Midnight,(2013)” undertakes a linguistic stylistic study of the novel. The study is guided by the purpose of examining how diction, syntax, point of view, imagery and figurative language, dialogue, transitivity, cohesion, and tone function as the primary means through which meaning, characterisation, and theme are constructed in the text. It is anchored in Linguistic Stylistics as its theoretical framework, which holds that linguistic form is inseparable from literary meaning. The study concludes that a stylistic reading of A Quarter Past Midnight (2013) illuminates dimensions of the text that thematic reading alone cannot capture. The study contributes as a first critical engagement with the novel and extends linguistic stylistic method to an under-examined area of contemporary Ghanaian fiction.
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