A cognitive stylistic analysis of J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy world of Middle-earth

Bragina, Jekaterina (2012) A cognitive stylistic analysis of J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy world of Middle-earth. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

This study provides an extensive cognitive stylistic analysis of one of the most intricate and vast high fantasy worlds created in modern literature – J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth. The two most popular works that describe this single world are The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The analysis of these texts is conducted using modern cognitive stylistic and linguistic theories (Text World Theory, Schema Theory, Possible Worlds Theory and Cognitive Metaphor Theory), as well as tools from narratology (point of view and focalisation) and discourse stylistics (phraseology and reference studies). The study explores how Tolkien’s skilful stylistic usage of language enables the readers to construct a vast and detailed alternative world in their minds, making use of the combination of general knowledge and the information provided by the texts. In order to investigate and describe from a cognitive perspective some possible ways in which readers construct the fantasy world of Middle-earth, the following specific questions are addressed: 1) How does cognitive research explain how readers go beyond the words on the page to set up rich mental representations of alternative worlds? 2) How do narrative and linguistic features such as focalisation, metaphor, phraseology and reference contribute to the representation of locations, situations and characters? 3) What particular functions are performed by these linguistic features in terms of fantasy world building? After the introduction (chapter one), the six subsequent chapters are divided into three parts analysing the texts from three different perspectives. Part I (containing chapter two) deals with the narratological aspect, analysing narrative (non-dialogue) text in terms of character focalisations, narratorial omniscience and the narrator’s identity. In part II (containing chapters three and four) world theories are used to analyse the texts. In chapter three, Text World Theory and Schema Theory are applied to The Hobbit, examining the construction of the initial text-world in the first chapter of the story, the ways the world’s inhabitants are introduced into the world, as well as the construction of the intermediate world linking the fantasy world with the empirical one. In chapter four, Possible Worlds Theory is applied to both texts, analysing the world of Middle-earth in terms of its truth value, its distance from the empirical world as perceived by the reader and its saturation with lifelike details. Part III (chapters five, six and seven) deals with specific stylistic devices that serve as world-building tools in both texts. Chapter five draws on Cognitive Metaphor Theory to analyse personified nature, which accounts for the philosophical aspect of the world of Middle-earth. Chapter six is devoted to the analysis of stylistic modifications of idiomatic expressions (phraseological units), which are influenced by the high fantasy genre of the texts. In chapter seven, the stylistic device of underspecification (the use of indefinite referential expressions) is analysed, exposing its paradoxical expanding effect on the fantasy world. In the concluding chapter (chapter eight), the findings of the analyses are consolidated into a set of world-building functions that are performed by the linguistic features analysed.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Additional Information: Due to copyright restrictions the full text of this thesis cannot be made available online. Access to the printed version is available once any embargo periods have expired.
• Subjects: P Language and Literature > PE English; P Language and Literature > PR English literature
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > English Language and Linguistics
• Supervisor's Name: Emmott, Dr. Catherine
• Date of Award: 2012
• Depositing User: Mrs Marie Cairney
• Unique ID: glathesis:2012-3873
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 18 Jan 2013 12:34
• Last Modified: 15 Jan 2020 17:06
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.3873
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/3873