بازنمایی عناصر سازندۀ جهان‌های زیرشمول در داستان براساس رویکرد شعرشناسی شناختی: مطالعۀ موردی بوف‌ کور

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the sub-worlds in Werth's Text Worlds Theory (1999) based on Cognitive Poetics Approach. Upon analysis, the authors showed that up to what extent the writer of Blind owl has used the sub-worlds including deictic, attitudinal, and epistemic. The methodological nature of this qualitative research is descriptive-analytic. It should be noted that all the clauses have been examined. But due to the limitation of the paper volume, in only 20 clauses of this story, the three sub-worlds have been analyzed as one of the semantic layers in Werth's Text Worlds Theory. The authors sought to illustrate the representation of the three sub-worlds in Blind owl and the way the writer has used these three layers in the story. The findings indicated that the epistemic sub-world has been used significantly more than other two sub-worlds, i.e. deictic and attitudinal. Also, the results showed that most of the clauses are narrative and discursive, and the epistemic sub-world has been reflected widely in this story.

Extended Abstract

The Aim of Research: The purpose of the present study is to investigate the sub-worlds in Werth's Text Worlds Theory (1999) based on Cognitive Poetics Approach. With this investigation, the authors showed that up to what extent the writer of Blind owl has used the sub-worlds including deictic, attitudinal, and epistemic. The present study seeks to show that any text based on Text Worlds Theory in the cognitive poetics approach can be examined in the form of three layers of text world, discourse world and sub-worlds which the authors have tried to explore the three layers of the semantic layer of sub-worlds including, deictic, attitudinal, and epistemic in the story of Blind owl. In this regard, we try to use the theory of cognitive poetics to achieve a correct reading of these texts that is far from any personal interpretations. It is worth noting that showing different semantic layers and understanding them correctly is possible only by applying this theory.

Methodology: The methodological nature of this qualitative research has been descriptive-analytical. The authors collected data by reading and analyzing the text of the story of “Blind Owl” by Sadegh Hedayat. In reviewing the clauses of this story, due to the limited volume of the article, the authors considered 20 clauses of the story from the perspective of the three layers of the sub-worlds as one of the semantic layers in the theory of text worlds in the cognitive approach from the perspective of Werth (1999).

Theoretical Framework: The theoretical framework of this research is informed by the approach of cognitive poetics in linguistics and Werth’s Text World Theory (1999). What makes this theory unique is its comprehensive application of cognitive principles in analysis. Text worlds Theory is a discourse framework, in the sense that its attention is not only focused on a particular text, but also on the contextual context and its surroundings that influence its production and acceptance. The purpose of this theory is to provide a framework for studying discourse in which situational, social, historical and psychological factors are involved and play an important role in language cognition (Gavins, 2007). Werth’s book was published after his death by Short in 1999 titled Text Worlds: Representation of Conceptual Space in Discourse, that includes Werth's full account of this theory. According to Johnson (1987), the cognitive approach shows that language is a product that is not produced from a separate structural system in the mind, but from cognitive processes that enable the human mind to make perceptions of experiences which linguists call them embodied cognition (Freeman, 2000, p. 281). Also, Stockwel (2002) states a broader concept of cognitive poetics and introduces all approaches that provide a framework for describing literary texts based on the tools of cognitive science, with the label of cognitive poetics. Text worlds are mental structures that form conceptual representations of certain aspects of reality. Werth's model is based on the distinction between two prominent functions of language: the informative function and modal function. Werth considers the informative function as what is often called the propositional meaning.

Conclusion: In this study, we have examined and evaluated the story of Blind Owl, by Sadegh Hedayat, based on the theory of ​​Text Worlds in the cognitive poetics approach, and it has been determined how the writer of the story has acted in order to understand the reader. It is worth noting that the three sub-worlds of deictic, attitudinal and epistemic, represent an important part of the construction and formation of the worlds of the story text. In order to fully understand the text, one must describe and analyze a part of it in order to determine the idea of ​​the text through the text itself, and not through utterances that are formed outside the text. The theory of ​​text worlds based on the approach of cognitive poetics opens a new path in literary criticism, the discovery of how the mind works, the relationships between time, and anything else that helps to build the reader's mental representation. Hence, this approach is a bridge between literary studies and the field of cognitive linguistics. To answer the first question, it should be said that Sadegh Hedayat has used more narrative and discursive text in this story. Regarding the second question, it must be acknowledged that although the three sub-worlds of deictic, attitudinal and epistemic are observed in the Blind Owl, but the sub-world of epistemic plays a decisive role through conditional sentences, frequency adverbs, cognitive metaphors and repetition. The findings indicated that three sub-worlds including 29.63% deictic, 33.33% attitudinal and 37.04% epistemic, have been used in the story of Blind Owl. The results also showed that the epistemic sub-world has the highest usage and the deictic sub-world has the lowest usage in this story.