A Cognitive Analysis of Poems in A Dream of Red Mansions from the Perspective of Image Schema

Yunyi Xia,Yuemin Wang

doi:10.5430/elr.v10n3p1

Abstract

This paper adopts a cognitive perspective in the analysis of various image schemas in the novel A Dream of Red Mansions, one of the most influential classical masterpieces in Chinese literature. Two poems from the novel are interpreted from the perspective of link schema, container schema, up-down schema, part-whole schema, and source-path-goal schema, to reveal the personalities, values and life philosophies of the two female protagonists. The contrast between the pessimism and melancholy of Daiyu and the optimism and aspiration of Baochai demonstrates the author’s understanding of that time and society, especially the status and fate of females. The analysis illustrates that image schemas, which involves bodily experience and metaphorical projection from concrete to abstract domains, can surpass language boundaries, reveal emotions and themes, and shed light on cross-cultural studies of literature.

Highlights

Cognitive linguistics studies language based on our experience of the world and the way we perceive and conceptualize it (Ungerer & Schmid, 1996)
Since the appearance of cognitive poetics, new approaches have entered the field of studies of poetry, based on both literary texts and cognitive linguistic strategies (Freeman, 1997; Brône & Vandaele, 2009)
According to Lakoff (1987), the significance of image schemas is that they provide important evidence for the claim that abstract reason is a matter of two things: (a) reason based on bodily experience, and (b) metaphorical projections from concrete to abstract domains

Summary

Introduction

Cognitive linguistics studies language based on our experience of the world and the way we perceive and conceptualize it (Ungerer & Schmid, 1996). Since the appearance of cognitive poetics, new approaches have entered the field of studies of poetry, based on both literary texts and cognitive linguistic strategies (Freeman, 1997; Brône & Vandaele, 2009). Studies combining poetry and cognition are concerned with aspects including figure and ground, image, cognitive grammar, mental space, conceptual metaphor, etc. With these theories, we comprehend abstract notions through embodied experiences. There are some linguists who tried to interpret poems with the theory of image schema. This paper will analyze two poems in Cao Xueqin’s classical work A Dream of Red Mansions from the approach of image schema, seeking to show how image schema can help to produce a vivid and reliable interpretation of ancient Chinese poetry

Definition

Characteristics

Major Types

Analysis and Discussion

Conclusion