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Cognitive Poetics: an Introduction Cognitive Poetics ‘A masterly presentation of the ‘cognitive turn’ in literary reading and anal- ysis, providing a radical re-evaluation of literary activity. … an invaluable text and an important contribution to the emerging field of cognitive poetics as a literary science.’ Margaret H. Freeman, Los Angeles Valley College, USA ‘In this book, Peter Stockwell presents a delightful combination of theoretical enlightenment with a deep concern for practical analysis and understanding.’ Willie van Peer, Munich University, Germany Cognitive poetics is a new way of thinking about literature, involving the application of cognitive linguistics and psychology to literary texts. This book is the first introductory text to this growing field. In Cognitive Poetics:An Introduction , the reader is encouraged to re-evaluate the categories used to understand literary reading and analysis. Covering a wide range of literary genres and historical periods, the book encompasses both American and European approaches. Each chapter explores a different cognitive poetic framework and relates it to a literary text. Including a range of activities, discussion points, suggestions for further reading and a glossarial index, the book is both interactive and highly accessible. Cognitive Poetics:An Introduction is essential reading for students on stylistics and literary-linguistics courses, and will be of interest to all those involved in literary studies, critical theory and linguistics. Peter Stockwell is Senior Lecturer at the University of Nottingham. His publica- tions include Sociolinguistics:A Resource Book for Students, Contextualized Stylistics:An Introduction to the Nature and Functions of Language (with Howard Jackson) and The Poetics of Science Fiction. Cognitive Poetics An introduction Peter Stockwell London and New York First published 2002 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor and Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 2002 Peter Stockwell All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-99514-7 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0–415–25894–4 (hbk) ISBN 0–415–25895–2 (pbk) Contents Contents Acknowledgements ix 1 Introduction: body, mind and literature 1 2 Figures and grounds 13 Preview 13 Links with literary critical concepts 14 Figure and ground 15 Attention 18 Discussion 20 Cognitive poetic analysis: Ted Hughes 21 Explorations 24 Further reading and references 25 3 Prototypes and reading 27 Preview 27 Links with literary critical concepts 27 Prototypes 28 Categories 31 Cognitive models 32 Discussion 34 Cognitive poetic analysis: parodies 35 Explorations 39 Further reading and references 40 4 Cognitive deixis 41 Preview 41 Links with literary critical concepts 41 vi Contents Deixis 43 Deictic shift theory 46 Discussion 49 Cognitive poetic analysis: Wuthering Heights 50 Explorations 55 Further reading and references 56 5 Cognitive grammar 59 Preview 59 Links with literary critical concepts 59 Stylistic prototypicality 60 Action chains 64 Discussion 66 Cognitive poetic analysis: George Herbert 67 Explorations 70 Further reading and references 73 6 Scripts and schemas 75 Preview 75 Links with literary critical concepts 76 Conceptual dependency 76 Literary schemas 78 Discussion 81 Cognitive poetic analysis: The Dream of the Rood 82 Explorations 87 Further reading and references 88 7 Discourse worlds and mental spaces 91 Preview 91 Links with literary critical concepts 91 Possible worlds and discourse worlds 92 Mental spaces 96 Discussion 98 Cognitive poetic analysis: science fiction 99 Explorations 103 Further reading and references 103 Contents vii 8 Conceptual metaphor 105 Preview 105 Links with literary critical concepts 106 Metaphor as mapping 106 Conceptual metaphor 109 Discussion 111 Cognitive poetic analysis: surrealism 112 Explorations 117 Further reading and references 119 9 Literature as parable 121 Preview 121 Links with literary critical concepts 121 Meaning and macrostructure 122 Parable and projection 124 Discussion 127 Cognitive poetic analysis: Middle English allegories 128 Explorations 132 Further reading and references 133 10 Text worlds 135 Preview 135 Links with literary critical concepts 135 Text worlds and participants 136 Sub-worlds 140 Discussion 142 Cognitive poetic analysis: John Keats 143 Explorations 148 Further reading and references 149 11 The comprehension of literature 151 Preview 151 Links with literary critical concepts 151 Experiencing literary narratives 152 Narrative comprehension 155 Discussion 158 Cognitive poetic analysis: Oscar Wilde 158 Explorations 162 Further reading and references 163 viii Contents 12 The last words 165 Review 165 Texture 167 Discourse 168 Ideology 170 Emotion 171 Imagination 173 Beginning cognitive poetics 174 References 175 Key readings in cognitive poetics 175 Bibliography 177 Glossarial index 189 AcknowledgementsAcknowledgementsAcknowledgements In the beginning, it was all Peter Verdonk’s idea. Several years ago, at a res- taurant in a Hungarian forest, he suggested with his usual quiet wise smile that I should write a textbook on cognitive approaches to literature. The con- ception of the book has changed quite a bit since then, and the field itself has acquired a name and a firmer set of borders, but the shape of this book and its mere existence owe a great deal to the inspiration and influence he has exerted over all that time. I have also been encouraged by many other people who were there on that occasion, and who have helped me with their work, ideas and discussions ever since. Many thanks to Michael Burke, Charles Forceville, Don Freeman, Margaret Freeman, to Katie Wales for being there in spirit and to Louisa Semlyen for her support and foresight in commissioning this book and its companion volume. I am fortunate in the generosity of my colleagues and friends. Through the Poetics and Linguistics Association (PALA), I have benefited from many and late discussions with the best minds and their most precise criticism. I am espe- cially grateful to my fellow committee members over the years: Tony Bex, Urszula Clark, Catherine Emmott, Keith Green, Lesley Jeffries, Willie van Peer, Martin Wynne and Sonia Zyngier. For specific ideas and startling discus- sions, I am indebted to Jayne Carroll, Peter Crisp, Szilvia Csabi, Jonathan Culpeper, Monika Fludernik, Ray Gibbs, Laura Hidalgo Downing, Rocio Montoro, Mary Ellen Ryder, Elena Semino, Mick Short, Paul Simpson, Gerard Steen, Michael Toolan, and particularly Reuven Tsur; and I would like to acknowledge with fond memory conversations with the late Paul Werth. The academic community at Nottingham University has been a rich source of ideas and inspiration. The philosophy here of language study in a radical, engaged and humane context makes it one of the most fruitful and exciting places to work and think. In particular I have learnt more than they would realise from my colleagues Robert Adlington, Svenja Adolphs, Robert Cockcroft, Janette Dillon, Zoltan Dörnyei, Val Durow, Craig Hamilton, Mike McCarthy, John McRae, Louise Mullany, Bill Nash, Mark Robson and Norbert Schmitt. This community owes much to the astonishing energy of Ron Carter and I am grateful for all his support and the apparently x Acknowledgements boundless enthusiasm and intellectual rigour which sustains the study of modern English language at Nottingham. I have developed many ideas and had my own thinking sharpened by my research colleagues Dany Badran, Ida Bahar, Tracy Cruickshank, Christiana Gregoriou, Ernestine Lahey, Ahmed Meliebary, Salwa Nugali, and by the students who took my cognitive poetics course, out of which I wrote this book. I have been supported, encouraged and loved through all my work and thinking by my wife Joanna Gavins. This book is as much hers as mine. Not all of these people agree with my ideas or the way I have shaped the book, but as Don Freeman once said to me, the only real criticism comes from your friends. I have incorporated many changes as a result of this friendly fire. Though of course I am responsible for all my schematic readings of their ideas, I hope the book emerges in a form they would recognise and approve. Finally, I am grateful to the following for permission to reproduce copy- right material: the estate of Ted Hughes, and Faber and Faber publishers, for ‘Hill-stone was content’, and Bill Nash for Vakum clenere and ‘Milkmen everywhere’. While every effort has been made to contact copyright holders, we would be pleased to hear of any that have been omitted. 1 Introduction Body, mind and literature Introduction Cognitive poetics is all about reading literature. That sentence looks simple to the point of seeming trivial. It could even be seen simply as a close repeti- tion, since cognition is to do with
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