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Part of
Experiencing Fictional Worlds
Edited by Benedict Neurohr and Lizzie Stewart-Shaw
[Linguistic Approaches to Literature 32] 2019
► pp. 135–154

Chapter 8
Cognitive grammar and reconstrual

Re-experiencing Margaret Atwood’s “The Freeze-Dried Groom”

This chapter examines the cognitive and experiential processes of re-reading, and their contribution to the conceptualisation of a fictional world. Fictional worlds are experienced dynamically, and often in multiple sittings, separated by varying lengths of time. While the myriad of contextual factors which distinguish sittings makes re-reading a difficult object of study, this aspect of our natural, everyday encounters with texts is worthy of consideration in stylistic discussion. As a first step in this direction, this chapter demonstrates an awareness of multiple readings, and the distinct experiences they represent, as part of a cognitive stylistic account of textual interpretation.

Firstly, a theoretical account of re-reading is outlined in terms of Cognitive Grammar and, in particular, its concept of construal. This account is demonstrated through analysis of the short story “The Freeze-Dried Groom” from Margaret Atwood’s 2014a collection Stone Mattress. Applying Cognitive Grammar's multidimensional model of construal, and a further process of reconstrual, we make specific predictions concerning readers’ experiences of this story’s fictional world on a first- and second-reading, looking in particular at changing conceptualisations of tone, atmosphere and narrative perspective, and the linguistic processing responsible. Based on this analytical case study, we propose a need for further investigation of texts which surprise readers, or which feature a twist or reveal, and the ways in which information is attended to across multiple readings.

Keywords: re-reading, Cognitive Grammar, Margaret Atwood, Stone Mattress , reconstrual
Article outline
  • 8.1Introduction
  • 8.2Cognitive Grammar as stylistic tool
    • 8.2.1Focusing and specificity
    • 8.2.2Prominence and reference point chains
    • 8.2.3Subjective and objective construal
  • 8.3Margaret Atwood’s “The Freeze-Dried Groom”
  • 8.4Analysis
    • 8.4.1Atmosphere and tone
    • 8.4.2Cohesion and coherence
  • 8.5The importance of re-reading
  • References
Published online: 21 February 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lal.32.08har
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