Cognitive Grammar in Contemporary Fiction

This book proposes an extension of Cognitive Grammar (Langacker 1987, 1991, 2008) towards a cognitive discourse grammar, through the unique environment that literary stylistic application offers. Drawing upon contemporary research in cognitive stylistics (Text World Theory, deixis and mind-modelling, amongst others), the volume scales up central Cognitive Grammar concepts (such as construal, grounding, the reference point model and action chains) in order to explore the attenuation of experience – and how it is simulated – in literary reading. In particular, it considers a range of contemporary texts by Neil Gaiman, Jennifer Egan, Jonathan Safran Foer, Ian McEwan and Paul Auster. This application builds upon previous work that adopts Cognitive Grammar for literary analysis and provides the first extended account of Cognitive Grammar in contemporary fiction.

Marcello Giovanelli, Aston University, UK:
This is an ambitious and immensely insightful book that pushes the boundaries of what modern stylistics can achieve. Harrison takes Langacker’s Cognitive Grammar and explores its analytical power by convincingly accounting for both the style of contemporary literary fiction and the responses of different readers. Outlining and drawing on a number of Cognitive Grammar concepts, Harrison provides exemplary discussions of a range of texts, which demonstrate that the framework has the potential to be an important and enabling method in the stylistician’s ‘tool-kit’.