| Pragmatic theory need not be restricted to the study of communication through speech acts, but may also be applied to literary analysis. The study of the structure of medieval French allegory gains clarity through the methodology of Fauconnier's theory of mental spaces (1984). Based on a systematic organization of the fundamental components of language, the theory of mental spaces describes how simple phrases such as In this painting, In this film, Ir. 1988, act as triggers for a set of epistemological beliefs. A given mental space representing the reality of the speaker contains the trigger element which is connected to a corresponding target element in an Image space. In this context, allegory may be divided into three mental spaces: the Pretextual space, the Textual space and the Metatextual space. The Pretextual space in the author's space in which he comments, interprets, presents and directs the main narrative. This mental space can intervene at any point in narrative discourse. The Textual space manifests the story of allegory in which a traveller (narrator) describes his journey through an other worldly place filled with personified characters. There is only one Textual space in allegory although it is interrupted at various points by the interventions of other spaces. The Metatextual space includes all intertextual passages in the text. The space has three subdivisions: the Classical Mythology space, the Non-classical Literary space and the Socio-historical space. An application of Fauconnier's theory to allegory makes possible an innovative and successful system for dividing allegory into its basic structural components. |
