Rhetoric Society Quarterly Jun 1996

Reading novels: Toward a cognitive rhetoric

Michael Kearns

Abstract

pletely unavailable to conscious introspection, as Mark Turner explains (247). According to Turner, the paradigm emphasizes the ties between meaning (hence semantics) and conventional cultural and structures, in contrast to the generative paradigm, which places these structures outside its area of interest (21). Turner insists that we are designed as a species to notice in consciousness not the obvious and unoriginal but rather the novel and nuanced, but that of language and literature are for the most part ... acts of the unconscious mind (43). These acts are based on conceptual connections [which] are disclosed in our patterns of reading and writing (149). A cognitive rhetoric should provide as complete a description as possible of what drives an audience's reaction in the presence of different kinds of texts as well as what basic needs and expectations in readers cause some kinds of texts to be produced and others, logically possible, not to exist in the literary universe. The cognitive rhetoric I'm suggesting treats the novel genre as a linguistic

Journal
Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published
1996-06-01
DOI
10.1080/02773949609391072
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Topics
rhetorical criticism genre theory discourse analysis literacy studies
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (2)

  1. Kearns (2001)
    Relevance, rhetoric, narrative
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  2. OAKLEY (1999)
    The Human Rhetorical Potential
    Written Communication

References (26)

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    Human Universals
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    The Mill on the Floss
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