‘Style matters’ : the event of style in literature book review

Abstract

Inherent to style is paradox, and any attempt at making absolute and comprehensive claims about style always point beyond the confines of the definitions that have been imposed on it. Though style is often thought of as a differentiating principle, the only categorical statement one can make about style, as Mario Aquilina immediately makes clear in The Event of Style in Literature, is that it is ‘resistant to definitional constraints and the security of a firm conceptual basis’. To define style is less of a constative enterprise than an investigation into the way the ‘contrary dynamics’ of style play out their multifarious contentions and oppositions (2). Despite the fact that the individual manifestation of style is often thought of as a mark of distinction (both within and outside the scope of academic and intellectual discourse), style remains conceptually indistinct, especially when pressed for definition.