Navigating Modernity and Coloniality: Text World Theory Analysis of 'Our Lady of Paris'
Keywords:
Text World Theory, Decolonial Studies, Modernity, Coloniality, Cultural Identity, Postcolonial Literature, Narrative Analysis, Socio-political Dynamics, Cognitive PoeticsAbstract
Literature from postcolonial societies often engages with the themes of modernity, coloniality, and cultural identity. Cognitive poetics, which emerged as a new critical lens, offers new insights into these themes. This research paper employs a cognitive framework, Text World Theory (TWT), to comprehensively analyse Daniyal Moeenuddin's short story Our Lady of Paris, focusing on its intricate narrative construction and thematic implications. While previous research has studied the text from postcolonial dimensions, Current research focuses on the intersection of modernity and coloniality; the study delves deeper into the text's portrayal of the ambivalent attitude of the colonial subjects. Through TWT, the analysis scrutinises the text's textual worlds and narrative advancements, unravelling the layers of meaning embedded within the story. Paul Werth (1990) and Joana Gavins (2007) developed this cognitive framework, which provides a framework for analysing the construction of fictional worlds, enabling a deeper understanding of how characters' mental representations and cognitive conceptualisation shape their actions and decisions. TWT allows the study to explore how characters navigate different text worlds. The narrative centres on the characters of Helen and Sohail, representing contrasting perspectives on modernity – one rooted in Western ideals and the other shaped by postcolonial struggles, and highlighting the complexity of identity in the postcolonial world. Through this cognitive lens, this study critically engages with themes of power, agency, and identity. The paper contributes to the discourse on decolonising literary studies and offers insights into how narratives negotiate the legacies of colonialism in contemporary contexts.
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Citation of this paper
Altaf, M. & Batool, H, (2024). Navigating Modernity and Coloniality: Text World Theory Analysis of “Our Lady of Paris”. Erevna: Journal of Linguistics and Literature, 8(2), 37 -57.
