Abstract
This paper applies the politics-based theory of Discourse Space to a literary text in order to investigate its flexibility and possible contribution to literary interpretation. As a case study, Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s short story, “A very old man with enormous wings” has been selected; this story most obviously evolves out of dichotomies on both inter- and intra-character levels. The theory’s proximization model is the main core of the analysis based on which the role of the deictic centre in positioning the story’s entities is accentuated. The analysis shows that despite its advantages, the proximization model needs to be expanded in order to accommodate the variety of deictic centres which any literary text, unlike political discourse, has. A comparison between Discourse Space Theory and narratology shows the inadequate attention the latter assigns to the axiological and evaluative role of the deictic centre in the story.
References
Cap, P. 2006. Legitimization in political discourse. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Search in Google Scholar
Cap, P. 2008. Towards a proximization model of the analysis of legitimization in political discourse. Journal of Pragmatics 40(1). 17–41.10.1016/j.pragma.2007.10.002Search in Google Scholar
Cap, P. 2010. Proximizing objects, proximizing values: Towards an axiological contribution to the discourse of legitimization. In U Okulska & P Cap (eds.), Perspectives in politics and discourse, 42–119. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/dapsac.36Search in Google Scholar
Cap, P. 2011. Axiological proximisation. In C Hart (ed.), Critical discourse studies in context and cognition, 81–96. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/dapsac.43.05capSearch in Google Scholar
Cap, P. 2013. Proximization: The pragmatics of symbolic distance crossing. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/pbns.232Search in Google Scholar
Chilton, P. 2004. Analysing political discourse: Theory and practice. London: Routledge.10.4324/9780203561218Search in Google Scholar
Chilton, P. 2014. Language, space, and mind: The conceptual geometry of linguistic meaning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511845703Search in Google Scholar
Cosmides, L. & J. Tooby. 2000. Consider the source: The evolution of adaptations for decoupling and metarepresentations. In D Serber (ed.), Metarepresentation: A multidisciplinary perspective, 53–115. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Fauconnier, G. 1994 [1985]. Mental spaces: Aspects of meaning construction in natural language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511624582Search in Google Scholar
Fauconnier, G. & M. Turner. 2002. The way we think: Conceptual blending and the mind’s hidden complexities. New York: Basic Books.Search in Google Scholar
Hart, C. 2010. Critical discourse analysis and cognitive science: New perspectives in immigration discourse. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1057/9780230299009Search in Google Scholar
Hart, C. 2014. Discourse, ideology and grammar: Functional and cognitive perspectives. London, New Delhi, New York, and Sydney: Bloomsbury.Search in Google Scholar
Johnson, M. 1987. The body in the mind: The bodily basis of meaning, imagination, and reason. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226177847.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Korman, B. 1981. ‘Tselostnost’ literaturnogo proizvedeniya i eksperimental’nyi slovar’ literaturovedcheskikh terminov.’ In: B. O. K. Izbrannye trudy po teorii i istorii literatury. Izhevsk 1992. In Wolf Schmid. Narratology: An introduction [2010]. Trans Alexander Starritt. 172–189. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter.Search in Google Scholar
Lakoff, G. & M. Johnson. 1989. Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Search in Google Scholar
Lakoff, G. & M. Johnson. 1999. Philosophy in the flesh: The embodied man and its challenge to Western thought. New York: Basic Books.Search in Google Scholar
Marquez, G. G. 2016 [1972]. A very old man with enormous wings: A tale for children. In Leaf storm and other stories. Trans. Gregry Rabassa. New York: Harper & Row. http://www.jonescollegeprep.org/ourpages/auto/2014/1/29/42934518/A_Very_OldManWith_Enormous_Wings_pdf.pdf (Accessed 20/ 08).Search in Google Scholar
Origgi, G. & D. Serber. 2000. Evolution, communication and the proper function of language. In Peter Carruthers & Andrew Chamberlain (eds.), Evolution and the human mind: Modularity, language and meta cognition, 140–169. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511611926.008Search in Google Scholar
Pinker, S. 1997. How the mind works. London: Penguin.Search in Google Scholar
Schmid, W. 2010. Narratology: An introduction. Trans. Alexander Starritt, Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110226324Search in Google Scholar
Stavans, I. 2010. Gabriel Garcia Marquez: The early years. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Search in Google Scholar
Van Dijk, T. A. 2011. Discourse, knowledge, power, and politics: Towards critical epistemic discourse analysis. In C. Hart (ed.), Critical discourse studies in context and cognition, 27–64. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/dapsac.43.03vanSearch in Google Scholar
Van Leeuwen, T. 2007. Legitimation in discourse and communication. Discourse & Society 1. 91–112.10.1177/1750481307071986Search in Google Scholar
Van Leeuwen, T. & R. Wodak. 1999. Legitimizing immigration control: A discourse historical analysis. Discourse Studies 10(1). 83–118.10.1177/1461445699001001005Search in Google Scholar
Werth, P. 1999. Text worlds: Representing conceptual space in discourse. Harlow: Longman.Search in Google Scholar
© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston