The Language of Siegfried Sassoon

Description

This book presents a cognitive stylistic analysis of the writing of Siegfried Sassoon, a First World War poet who has typically been perceived as a poet of protest and irony, but whose work is in fact multi-faceted and complex in theme and shifted in style considerably throughout his lifetime. The author starts from the premise that a more systematic account of Sassoon’s style is possible using the methodology of contemporary stylistics, in particular Cognitive Grammar. Using this as a starting point, he revisits common ideas from Sassoon scholarship and reconfigures them through the lens of cognitive stylistics to provide a fresh perspective on Sassoon's style. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of stylistics, war poetry, twentieth-century literature, and cognitive linguistics. Acknowledgements Contents List of Figures List of Tables 1 Introduction 1.1 Siegfried Sassoon 1.2 Style 1.2.1 Definitions of Style 1.2.2 Style and Language 1.3 Cognitive Stylistics 1.3.1 Cognitive Grammar 1.3.2 Readers 1.4 Modelling the Author 1.5 Chapters in This Book Notes References 2 Cognitive Grammar 2.1 Cognitive Grammar and Cognitive Linguistics 2.2 Cognitive Grammar: Basic Parameters 2.3 Construal 2.4 Construal Phenomena 2.5 Specificity 2.6 Focusing 2.7 Prominence 2.8 Perspective 2.8.1 Dynamicity 2.8.2 Reference Points 2.8.3 Vantage Point 2.8.4 Subjective/Objective Construal 2.9 Cognitive Grammar in Stylistics 2.10 Construal Constraints 2.10.1 Construal and the World 2.10.2 Cognition and Context 2.10.3 Creativity and Construal: The Case of Metaphor 2.10.4 Construal and Creativity 2.10.5 Embodiment, Construal and the First World War Notes References 3 Observation 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Sassoon the Georgian Poet 3.3 Experience and Prophecy: The Poetry of 1916 3.4 ‘A Working Party’ 3.4.1 Background 3.4.2 Immediate Observation 3.4.3 Accessibility 3.4.4 Reference Point Relationships 3.4.5 Action 3.5 ‘The Rear-Guard’ 3.5.1 Background 3.5.2 Movement 3.5.3 Textual Attractors and Reference Points Notes References 4 Trauma 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Trauma and the First World War 4.3 Mind Style 4.3.1 Parameters of Mind Style 4.3.2 Mind Style and Cognitive Grammar 4.4 ‘Repression of War Experience’ 4.4.1 Background 4.4.2 Metaphor and Mind Style 4.4.3 Split Construal 4.5 Hauntings 4.5.1 Dreams and Visions 4.5.2 Absence Notes References 5 Blame 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Reacting Against the War 5.3 ‘A Soldier’s Declaration’ 5.4 Cognitive Grammar and Agency 5.5 Clause Structure 5.6 Mystification 5.7 Intentionality 5.8 Assigning Blame 5.9 Blame in Counter-Attack and Other Poems 5.9.1 ‘Killed’ 5.9.2 ‘Die’ and ‘Death’ 5.10 Reading Blame Indirectly: ‘The General’ and ‘The Effect’ 5.11 Reading Intentionality and Irony in ‘Does It Matter?’ Notes References 6 Revision 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Two Prose Trilogies 6.3 War Books 6.4 Autofiction 6.4.1 The Sherston Trilogy as Autofiction 6.4.2 Cognitive Stylistics and Autofiction 6.5 Revision as Reconstrual 6.5.1 Literary Revisions 6.5.2 A Model of Reconstrual 6.6 Reconstruing Sassoon’s Diary in MFHM 6.6.1 Sherston and the War 6.6.2 Arriving in France and Dick Tiltwood 6.6.3 Omitting David Cromlech 6.7 Reconstruing ‘Died of Wounds’ Notes References 7 Reflection 7.1 Introduction 7.2 The Heart’s Journey 7.2.1 On the Threshold 7.2.2 ‘Farewell to a Room’ 7.3 Vigils and Rhymed Ruminations 7.3.1 Re-Journeying in Vigils 7.3.2 ‘My past has gone to bed’ 7.3.3 Time and Rhymed Ruminations 7.3.4 The Past Reborn 7.4 Sequences 7.4.1 The Spiritual and Religious 7.4.2 Metaphorical Construals 7.4.3 Image Schemas and Force Dynamics 7.4.4 ‘A Chord’ Notes References 8 Conclusion: Reading ‘Everyone Sang’ 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Recentring Sassoon 8.3 The Experience of ‘Everyone Sang’ Notes References Index