Cognitive Literary Approach To Characterization Of The Cowboy-hero In The Virginian: A Horseman Of The Plains

Owen Wister’s The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains,which has long attracted the attention of readers and critics,is the first American cowboy novel that has elevated a“cowboy” to the status of a “hero”.However,as a cattle raiser,there is in fact no natural connection between the cowboy image and that of the hero.In addition,the cowboy protagonist in the novel has participated in the unofficial killings of the cattle thieves in the community in the name of justice.The “heroization” of such a cowboy image relies largely on textual characterization on one hand and reader’s emotional responses on the other.In other words,both textual presentation and reader’s responses are consequential in the formation of the cowboy-hero image.While focusing on the cowboy-hero image in the novel,the traditional “American monomythic” approach,however,has tended to concentrate on the narrative structure of the novel,largely ignoring textual characterization and readers’ emotional responses in the construction of such a character image.As a result,it simply comes to the conclusion that the cowboy-hero in the novel only plays the role of “community redeemer”.This thesis therefore sets out to examine the process of the characterization of the cowboy-hero in the novel,with special attention to the following two questions: first,how the words of the text function to present a cowboy image as a hero? second,how are feelings related to the hero complex,such as worship and identification,activated in the process of characterization of the cowboy-hero?To address the issues above,this thesis proposes a two-dimensional framework that integrates the analytical framework of cognitive stylistics and that of affective narratology,and applies this integrated framework to the interpretation of the cowboy-hero in The Virginian.In this way,this thesis aims to lend a complementary perspective to the American monomythic interpretation on the cowboy-hero in the novel by linking textual characterization to affective characterization.Meanwhile,it provides an improved framework for the studies of cowboy-heroes by drawing attention to the cognitive and emotional processes in literary reception.It has been found that the cowboy-hero in the story plays the dual role of community“redeemer” and “co-builder”.Specifically,a cognitive stylistic analysis shows that the construction of the cowboy-hero image depends on the activation and transformation of the“cowboy schema” to the “hero schema”.An affective narratological analysis further explains how the cowboy’s extralegal killings are emotionally legitimized via activation of feelings related to the hero complex in readers’ head during the narrative process.