Tone Writing and the Sound of Feeling :Writing and the Sound of Feeling

Tone is often decisive in whether we love or hate a writer. Yet literary critics rarely treat tone as a necessary or important element of literary style or critique. There are surprisingly few analyses of what tone is, how texts produce tone, or the ways tone, as an essential element of narration, contributes to character, story, mood, and voice. Tone’s 24 “micro” chapters offers students a playful, eclectic, and fast-paced guide into the creation of tone in a variety of modern and contemporary works of literature by writers such as varied as Hemingway, Woolf, and Sedaris, as well as in criticism, advertising, and machine-authored texts. Judith Roof shows how tone is a crucial element in all writing, as it produces the illusion of a telling voice; creates a sense of character, personality and attitude; inflects events recounted; anticipates certain directions and possibilities; and creates an ambiance that simultaneously produces, enables, and shapes narratives and characters. Tone gives us a lively and original way to rethink the practice of literary criticism. Tone is often decisive in whether we love or dislike a story, novel, or even critical essay. Yet literary critics rarely treat tone as a necessary or important element of literary style or critique. There are surprisingly few analyses of what tone is, how texts produce tone, or the ways tone--as an essential element of narration--contributes to character, story, mood, and voice. Tone 's 24 micro-chapters offer a playful, eclectic, and fast-paced guide into the creation of tone in a variety of modern and contemporary works of literature by such varied writers as Hemingway, Woolf, and Sedaris, as well as in criticism, advertising, and machine-authored texts. Judith Roof shows how tone is a crucial element in all writing, as it produces the illusion of a telling voice; creates a sense of character, personality, and attitude; inflects events recounted; anticipates certain directions and possibilities; and creates an ambiance that simultaneously produces, enables, and shapes narratives and characters. Tone gives us a lively and original way to rethink the practice of literary criticism. Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Page Contents Acknowledgments Preface: Key Tone Chapter 1: Setting the Tone Chapter 2: Toning Up Chapter 3: Tone Jam Chapter 4: Intoning Chapter 5: Taking That Tone Chapter 6: Two Tone Chapter 7: Two Tones Chapter 8: Atonement: The Sound a Tree Makes When Iit Falls Chapter 9: Tone Down Chapter 10: Touch Tone Chapter 11: Tense Tone Chapter 12: Tone “R” Us Chapter 13: We-tone Chapter 14: The Tone “We” Tell Chapter 15: Tonal Dialogics Chapter 16: Inscribing Tone Chapter 17: Moebius Tone Chapter 18: Telling Tones Chapter 19: iTone Chapter 20: Toning Fork Chapter 21: Dissonant Tones Chapter 22: Toning Up/Toning Down Chapter 23: Tone-ads Chapter 24: Robo-tone Notes Bibliography Index "Explores a crucial but elusive aspect of writing, tone, across fiction, creative non-fiction, and electronically-generated prose"-- Provided by publisher.