This article reflects upon the ways in which recent stylistics can improve the understanding ofexperimental fiction. After a quick survey of linguistic approaches in literary theory and ofDutch literary stylistics, I will focus on two directions in recent stylistics, literary pragmaticsand cognitive stylistics, and illustrate their potential value for the interpretation ofexperimental narratives. More specifically, I will briefly demonstrate these approaches in areading of Ivo Michiels’s Book alpha (1963) and Orchis militaris (1968).
