Viewpoint and Text World Construction in A Visit from the Goon Squad: A Cognitive Narratological Analysis

Abstract

This article focuses on viewpoint analysis in relation to world building in “A Visit from the Goon Squad” through linguistic means and deicticals. The text world is actually a reality or scenario that arises in our minds during the active reading process. Being a discourse participant, it is primarily our cognitive schemata that help us identify these worlds and later edify our understanding of text world scenario. To conduct this study, after careful reading and re-reading of the novel, a subtext was created that served as the foundation for linguistic data collection. The analysis focused on identifying world-building elements and function-advancing propositions, sorting out modal worlds to explore varying viewpoints of characters within the text. An integrated method that incorporates both narratological and cognitive-linguistic elements aided in understanding that the instances of speech and thought representation (FDS, FIS, FIT, FDT) and deixis hints at the change in viewpoint of characters. In fact, the narrative events presented through participants or enactors‟ perspective influenced the semantics of the text. The meaning varied upon the change in the perspective of a character, context of the participant and already existing schemata. This study is important for linguistics, narratology and education as it explores how disoriented (postmodern) narratives can be better understood using the Text-world approach and the focalization technique. It sheds light on how writers guide us through text worlds using our temporal, spatial, deictic and subjective knowledge.