Method of Stylistic Analysis Exemplified on C.M.Wieland’s Geschichte des Agathon

Wieland’s Agathon has long been considered an impressive stylistic achievement, and much scholarly attention has been devoted to its language. However, the concept of style underlying such commentaries has often been ill-defined, the analytical procedures impressionistic, and the linguistic description inexact and incomplete. This study develops, in interaction with the literary text itself, a methodology of stylistic analysis, based on the descriptive techniques of modern linguistics and on the criteria for formal investigation proposed in recent discussions of poetics.