Cognitive Poetic Analysis Of Stream-of-Consiousness Texts

The present thesis presents a cognitive poetic analysis of twostream-of-consciousness novels--To the Lighthouse and Mrs. Dalloway in thediscourse structure and the conceptual meaning construction with the mental spacetheory and conceptual blending theory as the theoretical framework. These two novelsare the masterpieces of Virginia Woolf who contributed a lot to the innovations ofstream-of-consciousness novel theory and writing practice. Thestream-of-consciousness novels take the erratic consciousness flow as the maincontent. Their lexico-grammar and discourse structure are mostly complex andchaotic. In spite of this, the thesis assumes that there are certain fabricating patternsbeneath the seemingly chaotic surface of narration. Therefore, if the interpretation ofthe novel is based on common cognitive construction, the readers will be much easierto appreciate the stream-of-consciousness novels.The main parts of the thesis are set up from two dimensions: first, to differentiatethe base space from characters’ hierarchical spaces of consciousness，then build upmental space networks and finally work out the discourse structures of the novel;Second, to reconstruct the cognitive operations of Woolf’s verbalization of thepre-verbal consciousness, thereby realizing the conceptual meanings mapped bymetaphorical and symbolic representations of characters’ consciousness. For readers,the first step is to differentiate base space from characters’ hierarchical spaces ofconsciousness. Based on physical world, readers could establish the base space, that is,the outermost macro narrative framework of the novel, and then seek further theframe structure of its subspaces and figure out the structures and relations of variousmental spaces. Taking space builders (typographic and linguistic signs) as trigger,resorting to human general world knowledge and the discourse knowledge schemas,readers could build up mental spaces networks, thereby working out the discourse structures of the novel to reconstruct character’s perception process. The discoursestructure analysis aims to construct conceptual meaning. The conceptual meaningconstruction of To the lighthouse&Mrs. Dalloway is mainly through metaphors andsymbolic imageries, using the concrete and perceptible imagery to make up for theunfitness between the straightforward language expression and the vague perceptionof consciousness. With their basic cognitive ability of blending, readers could realizethe conceptual meanings of these metaphors and images and look into the erraticconsciousness.By applying the theories of mental space and conceptual blending to the analysisof fiction, the present research hopes to provide a new perspective for interpreting andappreciating stream-of-consciousness discourse in literary texts.