{"id":2,"date":"2020-09-15T14:56:24","date_gmt":"2020-09-15T13:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2023-08-07T21:08:23","modified_gmt":"2023-08-07T20:08:23","slug":"sample-page","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/sample-page\/","title":{"rendered":"Mind Style: Analysing the Texts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&#8220;When I open my&nbsp;door&nbsp;I can hear a roaring noise. I can\u2019t think&nbsp;what it is. It gets louder the further down the stairs I go. I stop on&nbsp;the bottom step, but I can\u2019t see anything. I look in the sitting&nbsp;room. The roaring is even louder. I wonder if it is in my head, if&nbsp;something is coming loose. The noise swells and vibrates. And&nbsp;then it stops.&nbsp;\u200b<\/p><p>\u2018There. That\u2019s your hoovering done, anyway.\u2019 Helen stands by the&nbsp;dining-room door, winding up the wire on the vacuum cleaner.&#8221;<\/p><cite><em>Elizabeth is Missing<\/em>, by Emma Healey (2014, Penguin)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignfull\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text alignfull is-stacked-on-mobile is-vertically-aligned-top\" style=\"grid-template-columns:15% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"324\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2020\/10\/Cover-of-Elizabeth-is-Missing.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-106 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2020\/10\/Cover-of-Elizabeth-is-Missing.jpg 324w, https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2020\/10\/Cover-of-Elizabeth-is-Missing-194x300.jpg 194w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 324px) 100vw, 324px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p>How does the extract above help you share or understand the character&#8217;s cognitive experience, her<em> mind style<\/em>? Our stylistic analysis would point to the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>the <strong>present tense<\/strong> and <strong>first-person<\/strong> <strong>pronoun<\/strong> <em>I<\/em> put the reader in the same time and place as the narrating character.<\/li><li><strong>iconicity<\/strong>, the representation of events in the order in which they are experienced by the narrator:<ul><li>the source of &#8216;the roaring noise&#8217; is not revealed to the narrator <em>or<\/em> the reader, until another character, Helen, explains it; <\/li><li>Helen&#8217;s speech is not introduced, but interrupts the narrative just as it interrupts the narrator&#8217;s thoughts.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><strong>metaphors<\/strong> used to represent characters sensory experiences as tangible, kinaesthetic events e.g. something &#8216;coming loose&#8217; in my head, noise &#8216;swells and vibrates&#8217;.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This brief example illustrates how fictional language can help readers share and understand the perspective and experience of characters with dementia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We have selected a range of contemporary texts representing the interior perspective of characters with dementia, resulting in a dataset or &#8216;corpus&#8217; of 350,000 words. Our corpus includes the following texts, in whole or in part, depending on the extent of prose from the perspective of a character with dementia:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"147\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2020\/10\/Texts-for-analysis-1024x147.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-136\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2020\/10\/Texts-for-analysis-1024x147.png 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2020\/10\/Texts-for-analysis-300x43.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2020\/10\/Texts-for-analysis-768x110.png 768w, https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2020\/10\/Texts-for-analysis-1536x220.png 1536w, https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2020\/10\/Texts-for-analysis-1200x172.png 1200w, https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2020\/10\/Texts-for-analysis.png 1861w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The first stage of this project involves analysing the data qualitatively using frameworks drawn from cognitive stylistics to identify features which contribute towards the creation of dementia mind styles. In addition to the features highlighted in the brief analysis of the extract from <em>Elizabeth is Missing<\/em> above, these include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"571\" height=\"541\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2020\/10\/Aspects-of-qualitative-analysis.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-135\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2020\/10\/Aspects-of-qualitative-analysis.png 571w, https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2020\/10\/Aspects-of-qualitative-analysis-300x284.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 571px) 100vw, 571px\" \/><figcaption>Dementia mind styles in fiction: aspects of qualitative analysis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The analysis stage also involves a quantitative analysis of the corpus of dementia fiction. By contrasting the narratives from characters with dementia with a reference corpus of general fiction (drawn from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk\/corpus\/index.xml?ID=intro\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">British National Corpus<\/a>), we can find out what is unique &#8211; or characteristic of &#8211; our dataset. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The outcome of the qualitative and quantitative analysis is a comprehensive account of how the cognitive experience of dementia is represented in contemporary fiction, found in <a href=\"https:\/\/pure.qub.ac.uk\/en\/publications\/dementia-mind-styles-in-contemporary-narrative-fiction-2\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/pure.qub.ac.uk\/en\/publications\/dementia-mind-styles-in-contemporary-narrative-fiction-2\">Lugea (2022)<\/a>. But too much of literary-linguistic criticism finishes with an analysis that sits on a dusty shelf. The next step of this research project ascertains if the features found in the fiction actually effect real readers&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/reading-groups\/\">Jump to Stage 2: The Reading Groups<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key references:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bitenc, R. (2012) &#8216;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.academia.edu\/11086597\/Representations_of_Dementia_in_Narrative_Fiction\" target=\"_blank\">Representations of dementia in narrative fiction<\/a>&#8216; in Cohen, E.,\u00a0L. Toker, M. Consonini and E. Dror\u00a0(eds.)\u00a0<em>Knowledge and Pain<\/em>. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, pp. 305-329.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lugea, J. (2022) \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/pure.qub.ac.uk\/en\/publications\/dementia-mind-styles-in-contemporary-narrative-fiction-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Dementia mind styles in contemporary fiction<\/a>\u2019. <em>Language and Literature<\/em>. 31(2): 168-195.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Semino, E. (2007) &#8216;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/staff\/eiaes\/Mind_Style.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Mind style: 25 years on<\/a>&#8216;. <em>Style<\/em> 41 (2): 153-203. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;When I open my&nbsp;door&nbsp;I can hear a roaring noise. I can\u2019t think&nbsp;what it is. It gets louder the further down the stairs I go. I stop on&nbsp;the bottom step, but I can\u2019t see anything. I look in the sitting&nbsp;room. The roaring is even louder. I wonder if it is in my head, if&nbsp;something is coming [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":847,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/847"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":490,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions\/490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}