And indeed, what is better than to sit by one’s fireside in the evening with a book, while the wind beats against the window and the lamp is burning? … One thinks of nothing … the hours slip by. Motionless we traverse countries we fancy we see, and your thought, blending with the fiction, playing with the details, follows the outline of the adventures. It mingles with the characters, and it seems as if it were yourself palpitating beneath their costumes.
(Madame Bovary, part II, chapter 2)
This quotation elegantly sums up what reading literature should be like: most enjoyable. We find people reading on the train, at the bus stop, in bed, in the waiting room. And every reading is unique. That is why we usually can remember the circumstances under which we have read a book. And the mere fact that people can be carried away by the written word is fascinating – and worth further investigation.
This essay is about reading, to be more precise about reading fiction. It is an attempt to explore how we read, or process, literature. We want to investigate how we comprehend fiction and how we monitor the tracking of characters and events in a story. Doing this, we will have to lay much emphasis on the reader as an individual being fully conscious of what and how he is reading. For this exploration, cognitive poetics with its relatively new way of thinking about literature will provide the necessary frameworks, one of which I will apply and discuss in more detail: Emmott’s contextual frame theory.
One question that I hope I will be able to answer in this paper is: How does fiction transport the reader into an imaginary universe? The approach to this question is not easy as I will have to draw on a number of interrelated disciplines such as linguistics, psychology and philosophy. The text I will ‘exploit’ for this end is Gustave Flaubert’s masterpiece Madame Bovary (1857) which I have a particular relation to. So this essay will also be a very personal evaluation on literary reading.
We will proceed as follows: First of all, we will explore the opening to Flaubert’s text to analyse it on the basis of Emmott’s contextual frame theory (inductive approach). Afterwards, we will apply selected key concepts of this theory to suitable passages of the novel (deductive approach). Then we will engage more fully with some theoretical assumptions of cognitive poetics. Afterwards we will elaborate on the concept of emotion.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Why Madame Bovary?
3. Cognitive Poetics Applied: The Contextual Frame Theory in Practice
3.1. The inductive approach
3.2. The deductive approach
4. Discussion
4.1. World knowledge
4.2. Inferences
5. Emotions and feelings
6. Introspection
Text
7. Contextual frame theory and emotions
8. The transportation of the reader into an imaginary universe
9. Conclusion
Research Objectives and Core Themes
This study investigates the cognitive processes involved in reading fiction, specifically exploring how readers comprehend narratives and build mental models of fictional worlds. By applying Emmott's Contextual Frame Theory to Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary, the paper examines the mechanisms behind reader transportation, the role of world knowledge and inference-making, and the elusive nature of emotional engagement during the reading process.
- Application of Contextual Frame Theory to literary analysis.
- The role of world knowledge and inference in constructing mental models.
- The complexities of defining and measuring reader emotions.
- The phenomenon of "transportation" into an imaginary universe.
- A personal evaluation of introspection as a tool for understanding the reader's mind.
Excerpt from the Book
The inductive approach
Right in the beginning of the novel, the setting is made explicit: a classroom. ‘We’ is bound into this frame. It is interesting to note at this point that there has been much debate over who this famous collective ‘we’ is because later on it is bound out in the middle of the first chapter without explicitly signalling it. And it never appears again throughout the whole novel. The reader may infer, however, that it must be someone sitting in the class, most likely a pupil.
The frame is promptly modified by the successive appearance of three characters. Successively, they are bound into the scene by entering the classroom. First, the headmaster, then a ‘new boy’ in ordinary clothes, and finally a school servant who carries a large desk. Our focus then moves on to the dozing pupils. All characters of this scene are now primed in the reader’s attention.
In the second paragraph, our focus switches back to the headmaster who binds the class-master into the frame by addressing him. At this point, a frame modification does not take place because we may firmly assume that the teacher had been at the scene before. In direct speech, the new boy becomes primed and textually overt whereas the school servant and the class become textually covert. By the end of the second paragraph, we may expect the school servant to have left the classroom although there is no explicit binding out of that frame.
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction: This chapter outlines the paper's aim to analyze the cognitive processes of reading fiction, introducing the focus on Flaubert’s Madame Bovary and the utility of Emmott’s contextual frame theory.
2. Why Madame Bovary?: The author explains the personal and literary significance of choosing this specific novel, noting its precise prose style and its effectiveness in transporting readers into a fictional reality.
3. Cognitive Poetics Applied: The Contextual Frame Theory in Practice: This section applies Emmott's theory to the novel, distinguishing between inductive analysis of the opening classroom scene and deductive application of frame switches throughout the text.
4. Discussion: This chapter explores how readers utilize world knowledge to fill in gaps and make inferences, arguing that these cognitive activities are vital for forming coherent mental representations of the narrative.
5. Emotions and feelings: The author discusses the distinction between genuine emotional experience and the "feelings" evoked by literature, noting the difficulty of reconciling emotional response with objective cognitive models.
6. Introspection: This chapter introduces introspection as a methodology for accessing a reader’s internal mental and emotional states, accompanied by a practical reflection on a final passage from the novel.
7. Contextual frame theory and emotions: The chapter examines the limitations of the contextual frame theory in accounting for emotional experiences, ultimately arguing that the category of emotion is difficult to formalize within current cognitive poetics.
8. The transportation of the reader into an imaginary universe: This section analyzes the metaphor of "transportation," suggesting that readers can be fully drawn into a text through a combination of favorable reading environments and personal identification with characters.
9. Conclusion: The paper concludes by summarizing the strengths and limitations of applying cognitive perspectives to literary study, emphasizing the value of these frameworks for future educational practice.
Keywords
Cognitive Poetics, Madame Bovary, Contextual Frame Theory, Reader Response, Literary Comprehension, Mental Representations, World Knowledge, Inference-making, Emotive Response, Introspection, Narrative Transportation, Flaubert, Realism, Fictional Worlds, Cognitive Science.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary focus of this research paper?
The paper focuses on the cognitive processes involved in reading fiction, specifically how readers comprehend stories, track characters, and form mental images while interacting with a literary text.
What is the central theoretical framework used?
The author primarily utilizes Emmott’s "Contextual Frame Theory" to analyze how narrative frames are constructed and modified within the reader's mind.
Why was Gustave Flaubert’s "Madame Bovary" chosen for this analysis?
The novel was chosen due to its precise prose style, its significance in the French literary canon, and the author's personal experience of being "transported" into its fictional universe.
What is the "inductive approach" described in the paper?
The inductive approach refers to the analysis of the novel's opening scene, where the author examines how the classroom setting and the introduction of characters are processed by the reader.
What role does world knowledge play in reading?
World knowledge is depicted as essential for creating mental models; readers use their prototype-driven understanding of reality to fill in details that are not explicitly stated in the text.
What is the definition of "transportation" in this context?
Transportation refers to the immersive experience where a reader becomes deeply absorbed in the narrative, allowing the written word to abruptly change their state of mind and distance them from their immediate reality.
How does the author attempt to measure emotional engagement?
The author uses "introspection"—the examination of one's own thoughts and feelings while reading—to track how emotions arise during the engagement with specific passages of the text.
What conclusion does the author reach regarding the "emotionalization" of cognitive poetics?
The author concludes that integrating emotions into existing cognitive frameworks is currently difficult because emotions are highly subjective and lack the logical, conceptual foundation that characterizes world knowledge and inference-making.
- Citation du texte
- Steffen Laaß (Auteur), 2005, How Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" transports us into an imaginary universe, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/70553
