EGH318: Assessment 2: Impossible and Unnatural Text Worlds in The Five People You Meet in Heaven’
In order to understand and conceptualise all language we encounter, we construct mental representations. These representations; known as text worlds, may be shaped differently depending on the individual, but are a part of how all linguistically adequate people process language. It is these text worlds and how humans make sense of them that is the underlying focus of what has been coined; Text World Theory. Text World Theory is a discourse framework that stems from Cognitive Psychology. With it being a discourse framework, it is concerned with the context’s surrounding text as well as how they’re actually created (Gavins, 2007: 8). In this essay I apply the Text World Theory framework to Mitch Albom’s novel, The Five People You Meet in Heaven. (FPYMIH) In this novel the protagonist; Eddie dies in an accident and is taken to heaven to meet five people to educate him on his life. I’ve chosen this novel mainly because of the many different text worlds that compromise it. Due to the nature of the text worlds, there will be a particular focus on the impossible and unnatural text worlds within the novel and the effect they have on the reader on how they conceptualise and interpret them.
Within Text World …show more content…
The first being impossibilities that have become familiar forms of narrative representation over time and the second being impossibilities that are yet to be conventionalised. The former is relevant for FPYMIH as by now, in prose, there are many novels which feature heaven, death and deceased narrators. The Lovely Bones; for example, features the deceased protagonist interacting with the living world. As there are so many novels that feature this concept, it is easy to see why it has become a familiar narrative form making it relatively effortless to conceptualise as a possible
In order to understand and conceptualise all language we encounter, we construct mental representations. These representations; known as text worlds, may be shaped differently depending on the individual, but are a part of how all linguistically adequate people process language. It is these text worlds and how humans make sense of them that is the underlying focus of what has been coined; Text World Theory. Text World Theory is a discourse framework that stems from Cognitive Psychology. With it being a discourse framework, it is concerned with the context’s surrounding text as well as how they’re actually created (Gavins, 2007: 8). In this essay I apply the Text World Theory framework to Mitch Albom’s novel, The Five People You Meet in Heaven. (FPYMIH) In this novel the protagonist; Eddie dies in an accident and is taken to heaven to meet five people to educate him on his life. I’ve chosen this novel mainly because of the many different text worlds that compromise it. Due to the nature of the text worlds, there will be a particular focus on the impossible and unnatural text worlds within the novel and the effect they have on the reader on how they conceptualise and interpret them.
Within Text World …show more content…
The first being impossibilities that have become familiar forms of narrative representation over time and the second being impossibilities that are yet to be conventionalised. The former is relevant for FPYMIH as by now, in prose, there are many novels which feature heaven, death and deceased narrators. The Lovely Bones; for example, features the deceased protagonist interacting with the living world. As there are so many novels that feature this concept, it is easy to see why it has become a familiar narrative form making it relatively effortless to conceptualise as a possible