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In:Experiencing Fictional Worlds:
Edited by Benedict Neurohr and Lizzie Stewart-Shaw
[Linguistic Approaches to Literature 32] 2019
► pp. 135–154

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Chapter 8
Cognitive grammar and reconstrual

Re-experiencing Margaret Atwood’s “The Freeze-Dried Groom”

Published online: 21 February 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/lal.32.08har
Abstract
This chapter examines the cognitive and experiential processes of re-reading, and their contribution to the conceptualisation of a fictional world. Fictional worlds are experienced dynamically, and often in multiple sittings, separated by varying lengths of time. While the myriad of contextual factors which distinguish sittings makes re-reading a difficult object of study, this aspect of our natural, everyday encounters with texts is worthy of consideration in stylistic discussion. As a first step in this direction, this chapter demonstrates an awareness of multiple readings, and the distinct experiences they represent, as part of a cognitive stylistic account of textual interpretation.
Firstly, a theoretical account of re-reading is outlined in terms of Cognitive Grammar and, in particular, its concept of construal. This account is demonstrated through analysis of the short story “The Freeze-Dried Groom” from Margaret Atwood’s 2014a collection Stone Mattress. Applying Cognitive Grammar's multidimensional model of construal, and a further process of reconstrual, we make specific predictions concerning readers’ experiences of this story’s fictional world on a first- and second-reading, looking in particular at changing conceptualisations of tone, atmosphere and narrative perspective, and the linguistic processing responsible. Based on this analytical case study, we propose a need for further investigation of texts which surprise readers, or which feature a twist or reveal, and the ways in which information is attended to across multiple readings.
Article outline
  • 8.1Introduction
  • 8.2Cognitive Grammar as stylistic tool
    • 8.2.1Focusing and specificity
    • 8.2.2Prominence and reference point chains
    • 8.2.3Subjective and objective construal
  • 8.3Margaret Atwood’s “The Freeze-Dried Groom”
  • 8.4Analysis
    • 8.4.1Atmosphere and tone
    • 8.4.2Cohesion and coherence
  • 8.5The importance of re-reading
  • References
References (50)
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This list is based on CrossRef data as of 25 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

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