Cognitive Narrative Studies

Cognitive narratology is a new cross-disciplinary subject which aims at constructing a cognitive basis for narratological processing, by combining some concepts and methodology of cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence, cognitive linguistics, etc. with narrative studies. It has not only reviewed the main issues but also managed to solve some unsolved problems in the classical narratology, by focusing on the reader’s cognitive process and mental interpretation process, responding to the text clues. It helps the classical narratology to go out of silence and hopelessness and regain its vitality and vigour. Now it becomes the most active and energetic branch of the post classical narratololgy.The thesis takes Psychonarratology of Bortolussi and Dixon, the main representative of the empirical school of cognitive narratology, as a case, to study cognitive narratology which is very fresh for Chinese literary world but quite leading and popular in the West. Psychonarratology is a study of narratology which focuses on how a reader population makes his/her mental constructions of the storyworld in a narrative text by the hints of text features and the other text clues and on how he/she cognizes and understands a narrative text. In their research, Bortolussi and Dixon always propose some theoretical hypotheses of narratology, and then try to prove them by text experiments. So the most distinct feature of Psychonarratology is empirical. The empirical methodology usually taken in science studies, is not typical in the literary studies. So the methodology of Psychonarratology has generally been resisted or refused by the "mainstream" or "authoritatives" of the literary studies. But the author of the thesis believes that it is very challenging, creative and significant to introduce the empirical methodology into narrative studies. That’s why Psychonarratology, a representative of the empirical school of cognitive narratology, is less attractive to and less focused on by the western literary researchers, compared to the other schools. And that is one of the most important reasons of why Psychonarratology has been chosen by this thesis. The thesis first studies two most basic theoretical hypotheses in Psychonarratology:(a) The definitions of and the distinctions between text features and reader constructions;(b) The relationship between reader and narrator as well as the "as-if" communication between them. And then it discusses the empirical methodology of Psychonarratology as well. The thesis consists of five parts: Introduction deals with the objects, the purpose and the significance of the thesis. The contributions of this part are:(a) Putting forward its own definition of cognitive narratology on the base of the other scholars’definitions;(b) Studying the status of the western cognitive narratology studies and the impact of some distinguished western cognitive narrative theorists; By the statistics, it suggests that compared to the other western cognitive narrative theorists and their theory, the impact of Bortolussi and Dixon and their Psychonarratology is the weakest. Why has such a creative and valuable theory suffered from such a neglection? This is one of the dynamic of the thesis;(c) Analyzing statistically the status of cognitive narratology studies in China and pointing out that it is still in the initial stage of introducting this theory; Examining the features of cognitive narratology studies in China;(d) Probing the status of Psychonarratology studies in China and stating that the introduction and the study of it haven’t started. Nothing can be found except about1000-word introduction of Shen Dan in China. While in the west, it is less focused on just because of its application of some "strange" methods for the traditional literary researchers and its pursuit of introducing the empirical methodology into literary studies. Therefore in the West the research of Psychonarratology is much less attractive, and most of the studies of it are focusing on the book, Psychonarratology:Foundations for the Empirical Study of Literary Response but not on the whole theory of Psychonarratology;(e) Discussing the relationship between cognitive narratology and Psychonarratology as well as their subject orientation; Proposing that Psychonarratology is the main representative of the empirical school of cognitive narratology, that both Psychonarratology and cognitive narratology are parts of the post classical narratology and they both are a new type of readers’response theory.Chapter One covers the definition and the history of Psychonarratology. Since the research of Psychonan-atology in China hasn’t started, this thesis is based on the achievements of the western studies. The developments of this part are:(a) It tries to define Psychonarratolgy on the base of the definition of Bortolussi and Dixon and that of Diengott, a scholar from Israel;(b) Different from the other researchers who only refer to Psychonarratology:Foundations for the Empirical Study of Literary Response, the representative work of Bortolussi and Dixon, or the methodology taken in the book, by "Psychonarratolgy", the author of this thesis regards Psychonarratology as a historical and connecting theory, which consists of a series of academic fruits of Bortolussi and Dixon as well as their co-operators since the beginning of1990s. This is another great distinction of this thesis;(c) It divides the history of Psychonarratology into three stages. The related publication/s of each stage is/are introduced and the values and significances of them to Psychonarratology are explored as well. It reflects not only the standpoint of regarding Psychonarratology as a historical, developing and connecting theory in this thesis, but also a great difference of the thesis from the western studies;(d) It examines the significance of cross-disciplinary study of Psychonarratology.Chapter Two examines one of two most basic hypotheses in Psychonarratology, that is the definition of and the distinction between text features and reader constructions. This hypothesis plays a very important role in Psychonarratology, for the whole theoretical construction and the empirical study of this theory are based on it. Especially in the empirical study the whole design and analyses of textual experiments rely on the causal explanations between text features and reader constructions. The developments of this chapter are:(a) Studying the development of the definition of text features and reader constructions historically. The similar research hasn’t been found in the West:(b) Concluding the qualities of these two terms and the relationship between them, and exposing the significance of defining and distinguishing them;(c) Examining some important terms and questions related to text features and reader constructions in Psychonarratology, such as various definitions of reader, literary processing and literary interpretation as well as literariness, etc.;(d) Reflecting some problems in this theoretical hypothesis, such as the definition and the universality of text features, the definition of statistical reader, etc.; Making some criticism on them;(e) Analyzing and interpreting the concept of reader in Psychonarratology distinctly, coining a new Chinese term creatively to express and translate it.Chapter Three discussed another most basic hypotheses in Psychonarratology. that is the relationship between the actual reader and the narrator and the "as-if" communication between them. Opposite to the assumption of classical narratology that a narrative text is a communication context between the reader and the author, Psychonarratology proposes that a narrative text is a communication context between the reader and the narrator. But how can the actual reader communicate with the narrator who is imagined and doesn’t exist in the real world? Psychonarratology supposes that they communicate by an "as-if" communication, which means that the narrator is not a real partner, for he/she cannot talk, but the actual reader treats him/her as a real partner of an oral communication in daily life. By constructing the representation of the narrator in his/her own mind and by the perspective of the narrator, the actual reader tries to understand what happens in a narrative text and to interpret the storyworld as well. The uniqueness of this part lies in:(a) The study of the historical development of this theoretical hypothesis, which hasn’t been found in the western studies;(b) The analysis of the qualities of the narrator as well as the features and significance of the "as-if’communication between the actual reader and the narrator;(c) Some questions to and interpretations of this assumption, such as diegetic level, the basis of the "as-if" communication, etc.Chapter Four focuses on the empirical methodology of Psychonarratology. Starting from the discussion of the empirical study of literature, the empirical study of cognitive narratology in the West as well as the empirical study of literature in China, the thesis introduces two basic experimental techniques, textual manipulations and extra-textual manipulations, which are very central, for most of the important concepts and questions in the empirical study of Psychonarratology can be connected and examined by them, such as measurements, the measurement instruments and the measurement distribution, rereading paradigm, variables in reading, covariation and confounding, causal explanations, etc. The distinct features of this part are:(a) It deals with how to do a textual experiment by introducing the first experiment in the history of Psychonarratology;(b) It discusses the chief components and main issues in the empirical methodology of Psychonarratology, such as textual experiments, the objects of textual experiments, the calculation of the likelihood ratio, etc.;(c) It probes the basis, the feasibility and the methodological significance of textual experiments and the empirical study of Psychonarratology;(d) It analyzes some problems and unsolved problems in the empirical study of Pychonarratology, such as how to select texts and objects in the textual experiments, how to manipulate texts, etc. It also proposes the author’s ideas towards the empirical study of literature as well as those of the significance of the empirical study of Psychonarratology. The standpoint of the thesis towards the empirical study and cross-disciplinary study of literature is stated as well. Psychonarratology has tried to add some objectivity, experimentality and scientificity to narrative studies by combining the textual experiments with narrative studies. It is not only a breakthrough in methodology of narrative studies but also a correction and a backwash of subjectivity and randomness in the traditional speculative studies of reader’s response. Therefore the thesis insists that the empirical study of Psychonarratology is very significant and valuable. As for how to deal with the relationship between the theoretical hypotheses and the empirical evidences, it needs to be thought more not only by the researchers of Psychonarratology but also by the scholars in the empirical study of literature. Psychonarratology is still a young and developing subject, but nobody can refute that it has provided a new and creative perspective as well as an effective and challenging method for narrative studies and literature studies. The author of the thesis is very confident for its prospective future.Conclusion reviews the main ideas in the thesis. It mentions not only the creativities, the unsolved problems and the limitation of the thesis, but also the present weakness and the bright future of cognitive narratology. It is predicted that cognitive narratology will go from monomedia towards multimedia, from fiction toward nonfiction, with the expanding of narratology and development of science and technology.The thesis aims at cleaning up some dust on Psychonarratology and exposing its great significances and values to Chinese literary world as well as that in the West. And the status and some insights of the study of cognitive narratology in the West can be reflected by this study of Psychonarratology of Bortolussi and Dixon as well. The author of the thesis also hopes it will be constructive for Chinese scholars when setting up the empirical school of cognitive narratology, cognitive narratology as well as the empirical study of literature in China.