Introduction: The Contemporary Problem of Style

Robinson, Richard; Sheils, Barry

Abstract

This essay sets the parameters of this special issue on the contemporary problem of style. Noting that the critical term style has returned to discursive prominence in recent years, the introduction explores the peculiarity of its status in literary studies. Asking how style underlies our critical practice today, it tracks the partially conflicting genealogies of style and the variety of its disciplinary relations. It explores the problem of style now: in its modernist inheritances; its association to class and nationality, especially Englishness; its reconfiguration through world Englishes and the global novel; its coupling with new aestheticism and new formalism; its recasting as a problem of receptivity and attachment in the era of ‘post-critique’; its intimate connection to shame, affect and embodiment (given especial impetus by critical race theory and sexuality studies); and its persistent association with subcultures and the scandalous pleasures of ‘lifestyle’.

Citation

Robinson, R., & Sheils, B. (2022). Introduction: The Contemporary Problem of Style. Textual Practice, 36(4), 473-500. https://doi.org/10.1080/0950236x.2022.2030510

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 13, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Apr 8, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022
• Deposit Date: Jan 5, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 9, 2023
• Journal: Textual Practice
• Print ISSN: 0950-236X
• Electronic ISSN: 1470-1308
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 36
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 473-500
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0950236x.2022.2030510
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1219458