Abstract
This study explores differences in individual cognitive mapping of the protagonists in Julia Quinn’s novel, To Sir Philip with Love. A qualitative analysis of the maps, cartographed on physiological and psychological planes, finds them to be diverse in nature. A “difference” is developed, step by step, in the mental cognitive mapping of the female protagonist of Eloise and in the physical cognitive maps of the character the male protagonist, Philip. Nonetheless, the thesis lies in the inherent creativity caused by the collision of two varied cognitions. Analysis of these cognitions involves the creation of these characters according to the basic cognitive structure of the romance readers as well. After an investigation of the ‘mindscaping’ model, developed primarily around the main characters in To Sir Philip with Love, it is concluded that the positivity in the conflicting maps is established because of the genre of the novel, in which there is a need to channel the individual cognition towards the creation of a larger cognitive map for the readers, with authentication of Happily Ever After as its goal. Furthermore, this paper also locates the status of these findings within the romance narrative; authentication of HEA, works as a major building force in molding and constructing the authorial, fictional and reader cognition.
Highlights
In the novel To Sir Philip with Love, cognitive maps of the two protagonists, charted on the physical and psychological plane, are found to be different
The central thesis of this study rests in the conception, establishment and progression of two different cognitive spaces and the inherent creativity of their conflict that emerges as a result of this ‘difference’
The current study is based on a qualitative research of the cognitive mapping in Julia Quinn’s To Sir Philip with Love
Summary
In the novel To Sir Philip with Love, cognitive maps of the two protagonists, charted on the physical and psychological plane, are found to be different. Nadel and O’Keefe propound that there is immense difference between how we mentally present the cognitive map and the actual psychological and physical space that forms the cognition. Bateson writes: ‘The stick is a pathway along which transforms of differences are being transmitted Some of these pathways happen to be located outside the physical individual, others inside; but the characteristics of the system are in no way dependent upon any boundary lines which we may superpose upon the communicational map’ (Bateson, 1972: p.251, 495). Cognitive map receives only the information of difference This is exactly what Bateson propounds in his theory of knowledge. It is this happiness arising out of happily ever after that the writer looks for (Welsh, 2010)
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