Read more
Cognitive Narratives Thematics proposes a new way in which narrative works organise their thematic material. It rehabilitates the study of what books are about by providing a cognitive narrative thematic model (CNT).
Part I presents CNT by combining different approaches to narrative, such as evolutionary theory, semiotics, possible worlds theory, or rhetorical criticism. Part II applies CNT to a variety of well-known narratives in different modalities, such as Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess", Julia Donaldson's The Gruffalo, Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, Frank Miller's 300, or Mike Mignola's Hellboy. It also considers literary histories and digital humanities. Daniel Candel shows that CNT deserves greater attention and that thematics generates its own forms and adds to the aesthetic pleasure of the text. Candel illustrates that CNT improves the established interpretations of the narrative works it studies.
This innovative study reveals how CNT offers readers a deeper understanding, and how readers and critics are often using CNT intuitively without being aware of it. It is an invaluable resource for students and scholars of narrative theory.
List of contents
Introduction
Part I
Chapter 1. Setting the Scene
1.1. Cognitive narrative thematics (CNT) or what this book is about
1.2. Why nobody does thematics
1.3. Two complementary traditions of cognitive thematics
1.4. Two thematics? Cherries vs. cakes
1.5. Countering the reductionist potential of thematics
1.6. Folk psychology and CNT
1.7. Consequences for thematics
Chapter 2. Articulating CNT
2.1. Justifying the premise of CNT: the nature-society binary
2.2. CNT and evolutionary psychology: evolved human motivations
2.3. CNT and modality
2.4. Summarising and justifying CNT
2.5. Two additional models
Part II
Chapter 3. CNT And Rhetorical Poetics
3.1. A new role for CNT vis- à- vis rhetorical poetics
3.2. CNT, rhetorical poetics and "My Last Duchess"
3.3. Conclusion
Chapter 4. CNT and children's stories
4.1. CNT and children's stories I: The Gruffalo
4.2. CNT and children's stories II: Where the Wild Things Are
4.3. Conclusion
Chapter 5. CNT In Comics
5.1. CNT and comics: Hellboy's "Baba Yaga"
5.2. CNT, comics and covert progression: Frank Miller's 300
5.3. Conclusion
Chapter 6. CNT In Academia
6.1. CNT in four histories of the novel
6.2. CNT in digital humanities reports
6.3. Conclusion
Chapter 7. Conclusion
About the author
Daniel Candel is Professor of English literature at the Universidad de Alcalá, Spain. He has published widely in journals such as
Poetics Today,
Semiotica,
English Text Construction and
Style.
Summary
Cognitive Narratives Thematics proposes a new way in which narrative works organise their thematic material. It rehabilitates the study of what books are about by providing a cognitive narrative thematic model (CNT).
Part I presents CNT by combining different approaches to narrative, such as evolutionary theory, semiotics, possible worlds theory, or rhetorical criticism. Part II applies CNT to a variety of well-known narratives in different modalities, such as Robert Browning’s "My Last Duchess", Julia Donaldson’s The Gruffalo, Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, Frank Miller’s 300, or Mike Mignola’s Hellboy. It also considers literary histories and digital humanities. Daniel Candel shows that CNT deserves greater attention and that thematics generates its own forms and adds to the aesthetic pleasure of the text. Candel illustrates that CNT improves the established interpretations of the narrative works it studies.
This innovative study reveals how CNT offers readers a deeper understanding, and how readers and critics are often using CNT intuitively without being aware of it. It is an invaluable resource for students and scholars of narrative theory.
