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Texture and identification

2005; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 9; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13825570500171937

1744-4233

Peter Stockwell,

Human Motion and Animation

Abstract It is clear that there is an increasing divergence between the concerns and discourse of professional readers of literature and the experience engaged in by natural readers. In particular, natural readers foreground emotional and motivational aspects of literary works, areas which are neglected or poorly handled in the academy. This paper explores the emotionally affecting dimension of how readers identify with literary works. Drawing on cognitive poetic developments within stylistics including text-world theory, a method is proposed that equates empathetic identification with spatial conceptualisation and distance. A short analysis of a very popular poem illustrates how the method can gauge differences between artificial and natural reading. Keywords: texturetext worldsidentificationempathycognitive poeticsstylisticsrhetoricKipling Notes Peter Stockwell is Professor of Literary Linguistics at the University of Nottingham. His recent publications include Language in Theory (with Mark Robson), Cognitive Poetics, Sociolinguistics, The Poetics of Science Fiction, and Contextualised Stylistics (edited with Michael Burke and Tony Bex). He is currently working on a book on surrealist writing, a book on texture, a reader in stylistics (with Ron Carter), and a companion to sociolinguistics (with Carmen Llamas and Louise Mullany). He edits the Routledge English Language Introductions series. Address: School of English, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK. [email: peter.stockwell@nottingham.ac.uk] Additional informationNotes on contributorsPeter Stockwell Peter Stockwell is Professor of Literary Linguistics at the University of Nottingham. His recent publications include Language in Theory (with Mark Robson), Cognitive Poetics, Sociolinguistics, The Poetics of Science Fiction, and Contextualised Stylistics (edited with Michael Burke and Tony Bex). He is currently working on a book on surrealist writing, a book on texture, a reader in stylistics (with Ron Carter), and a companion to sociolinguistics (with Carmen Llamas and Louise Mullany). He edits the Routledge English Language Introductions series. Address: School of English, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK. [email: peter.stockwell@nottingham.ac.uk]