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Chapter 4. World-building as cognitive feedback loop

  • Ernestine Lahey
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Experiencing Fictional Worlds
This chapter is in the book Experiencing Fictional Worlds

Abstract

Text World Theory (Gavins 2007; Werth 1999) has traditionally assumed a unidirectional model of knowledge transmission from discourse-world to text-world. In this chapter I follow Troscianko (2017) to suggest that world-building in discourse occurs within a cognitive feedback loop in which existing knowledge is applied toward the construction of a text-world network, and new information feeds from this network back into the minds of readers. In what follows, I demonstrate the utility of a feedback-loop approach in accounting for knowledge accrual in discourse through a case-study analysis of Canadian author Sheldon Currie’s (1995) novella The Glace Bay Miners’ Museum. I argue that Currie’s rhetorical positioning of the reader as the recipient of a highly politicised subtext at two levels of the discourse results in the incorporation of new or modified knowledge into a reader’s knowledge base.

Abstract

Text World Theory (Gavins 2007; Werth 1999) has traditionally assumed a unidirectional model of knowledge transmission from discourse-world to text-world. In this chapter I follow Troscianko (2017) to suggest that world-building in discourse occurs within a cognitive feedback loop in which existing knowledge is applied toward the construction of a text-world network, and new information feeds from this network back into the minds of readers. In what follows, I demonstrate the utility of a feedback-loop approach in accounting for knowledge accrual in discourse through a case-study analysis of Canadian author Sheldon Currie’s (1995) novella The Glace Bay Miners’ Museum. I argue that Currie’s rhetorical positioning of the reader as the recipient of a highly politicised subtext at two levels of the discourse results in the incorporation of new or modified knowledge into a reader’s knowledge base.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Preface xi
  5. Acknowledgments xiii
  6. Chapter 1. Introduction 1
  7. Part 1. Foundations of fictional worlds
  8. Chapter 2. Immersion and emergence in children’s literature 15
  9. Chapter 3. A predictive coding approach to Text World Theory 33
  10. Chapter 4. World-building as cognitive feedback loop 53
  11. Part 2. Forming fictional worlds
  12. Chapter 5. Experiencing horrible worlds 75
  13. Chapter 6. Framing the narrative 97
  14. Chapter 7. Constructing inferiority through comic characterisation 119
  15. Chapter 8. Cognitive grammar and reconstrual 135
  16. Part 3. Fictional worlds in context
  17. Chapter 9. Immersive reading and the unnatural text-worlds of “Dead Fish” 157
  18. Chapter 10. Experiencing literature in the poetry classroom 177
  19. Chapter 11. Sharing fiction 199
  20. Chapter 12. Afterword 219
  21. Subject index 225
https://doi.org/10.1075/lal.32.04lah

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Preface xi
  5. Acknowledgments xiii
  6. Chapter 1. Introduction 1
  7. Part 1. Foundations of fictional worlds
  8. Chapter 2. Immersion and emergence in children’s literature 15
  9. Chapter 3. A predictive coding approach to Text World Theory 33
  10. Chapter 4. World-building as cognitive feedback loop 53
  11. Part 2. Forming fictional worlds
  12. Chapter 5. Experiencing horrible worlds 75
  13. Chapter 6. Framing the narrative 97
  14. Chapter 7. Constructing inferiority through comic characterisation 119
  15. Chapter 8. Cognitive grammar and reconstrual 135
  16. Part 3. Fictional worlds in context
  17. Chapter 9. Immersive reading and the unnatural text-worlds of “Dead Fish” 157
  18. Chapter 10. Experiencing literature in the poetry classroom 177
  19. Chapter 11. Sharing fiction 199
  20. Chapter 12. Afterword 219
  21. Subject index 225
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