AMBIVALENT NATURE OF A WRITER’S INDIVIDUAL COGNITIVE SYSTEM

AMBIVALENT NATURE OF A WRITER’S INDIVIDUAL COGNITIVE SYSTEM

Author:  S.V. Serebriakova, E.I. Borovitskaya

Affiliation:  North-Caucasus Federal University

Abstract:  The topic of the research is the ambivalent nature of the writer’s world view and its reflection in the image of the emigrant protagonist as a character of fiction from the point of view of psycholinguistics and cognitive linguistics. The purpose of the research is to study the text conceptualization of the main character full of contradictive emotional conditions. The paper is based on the material of modern American migration literature (J. Kwok “Girl in translation” and M.D. Shrayer “Waiting for America”). The research is done in accordance with modern cognitive linguistics approach and follows the ideas of the theory of cognitive dissonance by L. Festinger.
As a result of the work the authors describe some features of ambivalent nature of the writer’s world view. The will to overcome dissonance is depicted by the author as motivation for reconsideration of the world picture of the character, reorganization of his knowledge within an individual cognitive system. The research revealed that a peripheral level of an individual cognitive system plays the key role as it is exactly the level where the process of comparison and revaluation of initial knowledge during adaptation of the person in new vital circumstances is taking place.
The paper records three types of ambivalence relevant for modification of an individual world view of the character: emotional, intellectual and volitional. The ambivalent nature of an individual cognitive system of the character is demonstrated by the mixed feelings accompanying the character’s will to understand the reasons for his discomfort and to find ways of overcoming the internal conflict. The character’s speech, verbalization and concretization are the ways to relieve the internal tension by the character. The emotional ambivalence consciously used by the author in order to structure the contradictory emotional experience of the hero dominates in the novels considered. This type of ambivalence is verbalized by various oppositions that create an aesthetic representation of complicated emotional states clarifying them to the reader. A less significant part is assigned to intellectual ambivalence caused by the character’s not knowing the other culture of the USA which can be successfully overcome with the social adaptation and communication with other representatives of the American culture. The character creates his own social and cultural experience as a result of modifying his individual cognitive system.
The ambivalent nature of a character is a considerable esthetic and psychological resource deserving special attention when studying an image of the emigrant in fiction especially in connection with the writer’s world view. The research proves the importance of studying the making elements of emotive and cognitive space of emotional ambivalence for understanding difficult psychological phenomena and ways of permitting the internal conflict and overcoming a cognitive dissonance.

Keywords:  individual cognitive system, migrant literature, literature character, cognitive dissonance,
ambivalent nature of the emigrant world view, types of ambivalence.

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For citation:  Serebriakova, S. V., & Borovitskaya, E. I. (2019). Ambivalent nature of a writer’s individual cognitive system. Voprosy Kognitivnoy Lingvistiki, 3, 42-52. (In Russ.).

Pages:  42-52