Raymond Carver and the Power of Style

Abstract

Apart from its discussion in a specialised field of linguistics, ‘style’ does not often these days get singled out for literary critical attention. Of course teachers and critics acknowledge in a general way the importance of ‘form’, and in short story theory there is still a marked concern with generic definitions. But ‘style’, that broad term that connotes various elements that distinguish an individual writer—‘manner’, ‘tone’, ‘voice’ and so on—tends to get left out of the discussion.