Abstract
In the opening chapter of this volume, Gavins and Lahey present the view that all texts are world-building and that relationships exist between the real world, the text and mental representation constructed by language users. The following 15 chapters attempt to reveal the capabilities of world-based approaches to the diversity of discourse genres.
Several chapters demonstrate linguistic analyses of the world-building nature of language in narrative texts. Bell (Chapter 2) combines possible world theory (PWT) with a stylistic and multimodal analysis of a work of digital fiction to show how metalepses are enacted through both verbal language and non-textual elements to breach the actual-fictional world boundary so as to invite the reader to interact with the text. Lahey (Chapter 3) uses text world theory (TWT) to examine the stylistic means of ethos construction of the main character in a popular series of novels, arguing that the text-world is both the product of the discourse-world and an element in its formation. Herman (Chapter 4) takes an interdisciplinary perspective to explore how narrative resources for presenting human mind are modelled for projecting animal minds and experiences. Whiteley (Chapter 10) argues that readers construct mental representations known as ‘text-worlds’, conflicting with their ‘discourse-world’ desires for particular narrative outcomes. Some contributors explore dramatic discourse in the worlds of theatre and film. Gibbons (Chapter 5) argues that audience members’ actions in the discourse-world of immersive theatre have the potential to result in trans-world projections across ontological domains. Marszalek (Chapter 12) indicates that the emotional effects created by common techniques on the receivers can be signalled by the stylistic devices in humorous film discourse. Lugea (Chapter 13) demonstrates that TWT can account for the co-existence of an absurd aesthetic and a realistic representation of a bilingual senile mind style in an absurdist play.
Another common focus for world-based analyses is poetic texts. Stockwell (Chapter 9) reveals that author intention in poetry is a part of a reader’s experience driven by a text but situated within the reader’s historical and cultural context. Harbus (Chapter 14) shows that TWT can be used to explore the stylistic features of the worlds of Beowulf which enables contemporary readers to build a mental representation of the poem and have a cognitive and emotional response to it. McLoughlin (Chapter 15) combines TWT with new insights from mobilities research to address imaginative movement and mobile sense-making so as to locate poet and reader in concurrent moments. Gavins (Chapter 16) argues that TWT can focus on the interaction between repeated instances of negation and negativity more broadly in a poem and surrounding stylistic elements of the poetic co-text. World-based theories are also applied to non-literary discourse. Browse (Chapter 11) offers a conceptually situated approach to disparate metaphors to account for how they are used to shift and undermine different ideological perspectives on the economic crisis. Van der Bom (Chapter 6) examines how participants represent themselves and how their identities can be achieved and negotiated in interactional discourse.
The parameters of TWT are also applied in other ground-breaking directions: a teaching context and a creative writing context. Giovanelli (Chapter 7) argues that TWT can be taken as a cognitive discourse grammar to engage students with better understanding of the self-projection involved in the process of reading. Scott (Chapter 8) suggests that processes of linguistic world-building provide invaluable insights for creative writing. He proposes that the mindful facility of a reader enables him or her to be transported to fictional worlds imaginatively.
Overall, this volume is a collection of high-quality essays on the application of theories of discourse analysis based on a ‘text-as-world’ metaphor. It expands our knowledge of the capabilities of world-based approaches to discourse. It also makes us understand that all discourses are understood through the construction of ‘world’ in the readers’ mind. Moreover, at the end of most chapters, suggestions for future research directions are proposed which can be helpful and be a guide for researchers to explore in their own studies.
One striking aspect of this volume lies in the differing approaches represented in the chapters. Some contributors apply world-theories such as PWT and TWT directly and strictly to their discourse analysis with their own analytical aims. In PWT, the analysis tends to focus on the ontological structure produced by the use of language, while in TWT the discourse-world is seen as socially and culturally situated. Others employ one or more terms such as ‘text-world’, ‘possible world’ and ‘storyworld’ as heuristic devices to test the influence and scope of world-based approaches within mainstream discourse linguistics. A variety of world-based analytical frameworks and theories has been applied to show the results of productive interdisciplinary collaboration.
Another striking aspect is that this volume examines a wide-ranging diversity of discourse genres and contexts including narrative prose fiction, poetry, newspaper discourse, oral narrative, dramatic discourse, creative writing and classroom teaching. Such diversity not only extends the world-based perspective on language to different types of discourse but also enables us to understand the experiential dimension of world-building both through language and different discourse contexts.
However, this volume has a shortcoming reflected in its structure. Since it covers a variety of discourse types, its chapters could be organized into sections around the range of discourse genres addressed, which would make it easy for readers to form a general overview of the application of world-theories in various discourse contexts. However, the editors did not arrange the chapters in that way and did not explain why they arranged them in the way they did.
Despite this shortcoming, it is notable that this volume represents current research in the field of world-based theories of discourse. All in all, it serves as a valuable academic resource for scholars and graduate students who are interested in the study of world-based approaches to discourse analysis.