Direttore ALBA GRAZIANO (Università della Tuscia, Viterbo) Comitato scientifico Richard Ambrosini (Università di Roma ‘Tre’) Riccardo Capoferro (‘Sapienza’ Università di Roma) Giuseppina Cortese (Università di Torino) Lennard J. Davis (University of Illinois, Chicago) Roberto De Romanis (Università di Perugia) George Levine (Rutgers University) Giampietro Marconi (‘Sapienza’ Università di Roma) Giorgio Mariani (‘Sapienza’ Università di Roma) Donatella Montini (‘Sapienza’ Università di Roma) Jean-Pierre Naugrette (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris III) Daniele Niedda (unint, Roma) Marisa Sestito (Università di Udine) Manju Jaidka (Panjab University, Chandigarh) Jane Wilkinson (Università di Napoli ‘L’Orientale’) Comitato di redazione Fabio Ciambella · Andrea Fenice «Fictions» is an International Peer Reviewed Journal. The eContent is Archived with Clockss and Portico. anvur: a.
Fictions Studi sulla narratività xvi · 20!7
STYLE AND STORIES. CONTEMPORARY STYLISTICS AND NARRATIVITY editor: donatella montini
P I SA · ROM A FA B R I Z I O S E R R A E D I TO R E M M X V II
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Contents
CONTENTS Donatella Montini, Preface. Stylistics Reloaded : Tradition and Prospects of an Impure Discipline Giuseppina Balossi, A Corpus-aided Approach to the Language of the Interludes in Virginia Woolf ’s The Waves Hugo Bowles, Hybrid Quotation Forms in Dickens Daniele Borgogni, « Revelling in dissolving views » : Conceptual Integration and Blending in Ford’s Mister Bosphorus and the Muses Margherita Dore, Narrative Strategies and Mind Style in Emma Donoghue’s Room Chiara Degano, Stylistics and Argumentation : Exploring Reasoning Presentation in McEwan’s The Children Act Salvador Alarcón-Hermosilla, Fictive Motion in John McGahern. Light and Nature in The Dark Massimiliano Morini, Bombers and Terrorists : The Stylistics of News Stories Donatella Montini, Elena Semino, Afterword. Ten Questions about Contemporary Stylistics Biographical sketches
9 21 35 49 61 75 91 101 115 125
Somm Cont Don Prosp Gius the In Hug Dani tegra 49 Mar Dono Chia ing P Salv hern. Mass News Don about Biog
Margherita Dore, Narrative Strategies and Mind Style in Emma Donoghue’s Room
NARRATIVE STRATEGIES AND MIND STYLE IN EMMA DONOGHUE’S ROOM Margherita Dore This study investigates the concept of Mind Style in Emma Donoghue’s 2010 novel Room, which is partly based on the Fritzl case that emerged in Austria in 2008. Donoghue narrates the story from the point of view of Jack, a five-year-old boy who was born and held in captivity along with his mother by Old Nick. Jack’s cognitive development is affected by his limited access to knowledge and the external world. Here, I apply a linguistic approach to account for the way the receiver perceives Jack’s Mind Style and his linguistic and cognitive development as the events unfold. To this end, I discuss Jack’s peculiar linguistic choices and patterns in terms of grammar, vocabulary, figurative speech and interactional behaviour. The systematic investigation of these stylistic features demonstrates how they can contribute to the understanding of the developmental process of a child’s mind style that may be hindered by external factors and/or traumatic experiences. Keywords : Mind Style, Narrative Strategies, Cognitive Linguistics, Trauma, Reader’s perception. We’re like people in a book, and he won’t let anybody else read it. (Ma, in Donoghue, 2010, p. 112)
i. Introduction
T
he aim of this study is to investigate how the concept of Mind Style is conveyed via several narrative strategies in Emma Donoghue’s 2010 novel Room. This novel has been shortlisted for many literary prizes (Orange Prize, Man Booker Prize, etc.) and has won several honours and awards. Its film adaptation won Brie Larson the Academy Award for Best Actress in 2015. Although Emma Donoghue claimed that : « to say that the novel is based on the Josef Fritzl case is too strong » (« The Guardian », 13/08/2010), 1 it certainly owes much to it. The Fritzl case emerged in Austria in 2008 when it was found that Josef Fritzl had held his daughter Elisabeth in captivity for 24 years, repeatedly raping and abusing her. Such sexual abuse resulted in the birth of seven children, some of whom died or were held prisoners with their mother. As Donoghue stated, the main character Jack was inspired by Felix Fritzl, the five-year-old child who had had no contact with the external world since his birth. As she pointed out : « That notion of the wide-eyed child emerging into the world like a Martian coming to Earth : it seized me » (ibidem). Like Felix Fritzl, Jack is the result of the repeated sexual assaults perpetrated by Old Nick on Ma (as Jack always refers to his mother). Jack and Ma are held in a sound-proof shed (i.e. the room in the title) in the backyard of Old Nick’s house. Before having Jack, Ma had already delivered a dead baby girl, whose body was buried in the garden. This and other grim details of Ma’s years in captivity are told through Jack’s first-person narration. His monologue includes his thoughts, the conversations he has with his mother and those with other characters after escaping captivity. 1
See : https ://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/aug/13/emma-donoghue-room-josef-fritzl https://doi.org/10.19272/201706901005 · «fictions», xvi · 2017
