Elena Semino, Elena Semino is Lecturer in the Department of Linguistics and Modern English Language at Lancaster University.

Publisher: Longman
Copyright: 1997
Format: Paper; 288 pp

ISBN-10:	0582303540
ISBN-13:	9780582303546

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 Introduces an interdisciplinary and practical approach to the analysis of poetry which focuses on text worlds: the contexts, scenarios or types of reality that readers construct in their inter-action with the language of texts. The book demonstrates, through the analysis of British and American poems and non-poetic tetxs, three ways of approaching poetic text worlds, namely as discourse situations, possible-worlds, and mental constructs. Clear and detailed introductions to linguistic theories of definiteness and deixis, possible-world theory and schema theory are included, making the book accessible to readers who are unfamiliar with these frameworks.

1. Introduction

Part I: Poetic text worlds as discourse situations
2. Definiteness, indefiniteness and context creation
3. Deixis and context creation

Part II: Poetic text worlds as possible worlds
4. Possible-world theory, fiction and literature
5. Possible-world theory and the analysis of poetic text worlds

Part III: Poetic text worlds as cognitive constructs
6. Schema theory and literature
7. Schema theory and the analysis of poetic text worlds
8. Metaphor, schema refreshment and text worlds

9. Conclusion: the world of Sylvia Plath's 'The Applicant'

References

Index

• This is the first book in the field which focuses on text worlds in poetry and applies possible-world and schema theory to poetry in a systematic way.
• A wide range of British and American poems in English are analysed.
• Brief sample analyses of non-poetic texts are also included.
• Encourages students to apply the analysis to other genres including novels, short stories, plays, advertisements and jokes.