Cognitive Analysis Of Frontier Fortress Poetry Based On Figure-Ground Theory

Frontier Fortress poetry, as one of the most important parts of poems in Tang Dynasty, has attracted scholars’ attention and been studied from its birth. However, the systemic study of FF poetry started in 1920 s. The study can be classified into three stages: the initial stage, the developing stage as well as the mature stage. During these three stages, lots of scholars have attempted to analyze FF poetry based on various critical theories. In the second half of the 20 th century, some scholars turned to study literary works based on the theories and methods from branches of cognitive science, such as cognitive poetics, which comes into being based on the cognitive linguistics and cognitive psychology, and as cognitive literary studies developed from the cognitive cultural study.Cognitive poetics is a new discipline emerging based on cognitive science. It emphasizes the analysis of literary texts according to related theories from cognitive linguistics and attaches attention to readers’ mental activities as well as cognitive mechanism when they are reading. Figure-ground theory came into being owing to gestalt psychologists’ researches on visual perception. It consists of one of the most important principles in cognitive poetics. The figure has complete structure and easily attracts people’s attention. So it’s the salient part in human cognition. Owning the shape, structure and strong continuity is the basic feature of the figure. Conversely, the ground is not so salient as figure in human cognition. Therefore it’s often regarded as the surrounding of figure or the referential point in cognition. Lacking shape, structure and strong continuity is the basic feature of the ground. From the above discussion, it’s obvious that figure is more prominent than ground, and thus is easier to be recognized and remembered. The principle of separation of figure and ground consists of the core part of figure-ground theory. It holds that figure and ground cannot be perceived at the same time. The separation principle can not only be used to explain cognitive ways in which people perceive spatial organization, but be used to analyze linguistic structures from the cognitive aspect.The thesis is aiming to interpret FF poetry from the angle of cognition in light of figure-ground theory in cognitive poetics. Several frontier poems are selected for the purpose of discussion about the role that figure-ground theory plays in the readers’ interpretation of themes and images from the perspective of their mental activities, and for the purpose of detailed demonstration of how it works in the process of reading. The study proves that figure-ground theory is practically operative and powerful in demonstration of the process of readers’ cognition when they interpret the frontier poems. Meanwhile, the study can also fill the blank brought by previous study merely on the texts of FF poetry and provide a reference for the later analysis of poetry.On the one hand, since cognitive poetics is still in the stage of development and the theoretical system has not been completely constructed, the present study may be not so deliberate. On the other hand, the present study counts as a trial and the verification of the feasibility of figure-ground theory in poetic interpretation, which is expected to add cases for its practical applications.