An Interpretation of the Play After the Fall Based on Role- and -Value Cognitive Concept
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1112.19Keywords:
characterization, coherence, stream-of-consciousness plays, evolving reference, role and valuesAbstract
The paper aims to interpret Arthur Miller’s stream-of-consciousness play text, After the Fall, from the perspective of the cognitive concept of evolving reference, namely “role and values”. The results of the study are as follows: 1. Mutual across-time-and-space contextual embedment or entanglement is the distinctive feature of stream-of-consciousness play text, which makes it possible to present synchronically what has happened diachronically, so that the various values generated by role switching over the past years are accessible in a while. 2. This feature in turn makes characterization more natural, true-to-life, vivid and substantial, revealing not only the different aspects of the protagonist’s disposition but also the shaping process involved. 3. Despite the seemingly disordered contextual entanglement, the values through role switching are implicitly linked by the cause-effect logical relationship, which ensures the textual coherence of the play.
References
Bell, A. & Alber, J. (2012). Ontological Metalepsis and Unnatural Narratology. Journal of Narrative Theory, 42(2): 166-192. Retrieved January 3, 2021, from https://www.jstor.org/stable/24484758.
Cuddon, J. A. (1984). A Dictionary of Literary Terms. Harmondsworth, Penguin Books.
Dam-Jensen, H. (2006). An Application of the Role-Value Distinction in Mental Space Theory to the Analysis of Definite and Indefinite Noun Phrases. Tidsskrift for Sprogforskning, 4(1), 245–273. https://doi.org/10.7146/tfs.v4i1.323.
Emmott, C. (1992). Splitting the Referent: An Introduction to Narrative Enactors. In Davies, M. and Ravelli, L. (Eds.), Advances in Systemic Linguistics: Recent Theory and Practice (pp. 221-228). Pinter Publishers.
Emmott, C. (1997). Narrative Comprehension: A Discourse Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Emmott, C. (2002). ‘Split-selves’ in fiction and in medical ‘life-stories’: Cognitive linguistic theory and narrative practice. In Semino, E, Culpeper, J (Eds.), Cognitive Stylistics: Language and Cognition in Text Analysis (pp. 153-182). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Fang, Y. (2013). Adaptability of Discourse to Context as Perceived from Stage Directions—A Case Study of Death of a Salesman. Journal of Hohai University (Philosophy and Social Sciences), 15 (3), 86-89.
Fauconnier, G. (1985). Mental Spaces: Aspects of Meaning Construction in Natural Language. Cambridge University Press.
Gavins, J. (2007). Text World Theory: An Introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Kripke, S. (1979). Speaker's Reference and Semantic Reference. In Peter A. French, Theodore E. Uehling. Jr and Howard K. Wettstein (Eds.), Contemporary Perspectives in the Philosophy of Language (pp. 255-296). University of Minnesota Press.
Lakoff, G. (1993). The internal structure of the Self. In U. Neisser & D. A. Jopling (Eds.), The Conceptual Self in Context, Culture, Experience and Self Understanding (pp. 92–114). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Leech, G & Short, M. (2007). Style in fiction: A linguistic introduction to English fictional prose. Pearson Education Ltd.
Marino, S. (2005). Language and Metaphor in Arthur Miller’s After the Fall. South Atlantic Review. 70(2): 41-56. Retrieved February 5, 2021, from https://www.jstor.org/stable/20064632.
Miller, A. (1980). After the Fall. New York: Penguin.
Moss, L. (1980). Arthur Miller. (Rev. ed.). Boston: Twayne.
Nunberg, G. (1978). The pragmatics of reference. Bloomington, Indiana University Linguistics Club.
Ryan, M. L. (1991). Possible worlds, artificial intelligence, and narrative theory. Indiana University Press.
Stockwell, P. (2002). Cognitive poetics: An introduction. London: Routledge.
Stockwell, P. (2009). Texture: a cognitive aesthetics of reading. Edinburgh University Press.
Stockwell, P. (2014). How to Read a Mind: An Introduction to Understanding Literary Characters. Online Course. Retrieved February 2, 2020, from https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/how-to-read-a-mind.
Wilde, O. (1891). The Picture of Dorian Gray. Simpkin, Marshall Hamilton, Kent and Co. Ltd.
