Cognitive Stylistic Analysis of Kamila Shamsie’s Short Story the Walk

Abstract

This research is concerned with the application of two key approaches of cognitive stylistics i.e. Schema theory and Text World Theory approach to Kamila Shamsie‟s short story The Walk (2020). The role of cognitive analysis in interpretation of the text is manifold as it reveals how a creator of the text takes care of the text at discourse level and at text-world. Exposing himself or herself to the audience, the author conveys the message and the reader decode the embedded message conveyed through the specific text. Thus constructing textual meanings not simply requires further elaborations but needs reader‟s „mental space‟ involvement in the process of creating the Text world. Text world theory aims to clear the distance laid between the reader and author. The „reading experience‟ involves the focus of cognitive stylistics as what happens when this action of reading the text happen and also how this action shape the construction of meaning and interpretation of text (cf. e.g., Ibrahim, 2014; Stockwell, 2015).” “Text World Theory (Werth, 1999; Gavins, 2007; Whiteley, 2011) has given us answers to the questions as how and why readers construct meanings while performing the act of reading (Patricia Canning). Where on one hand the Text-World theory tells us how meanings and interpretations are constructed, on the other hand the Schema theory helps us to understand how coherence is achieved by connecting the vacant dots created by the author and solved by the reader.