Construing the child reader: a cognitive stylistic analysis of the opening to Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book

Giovanelli, Marcello

Abstract

Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book (2009) charts the story of Nobody Owens, a boy who is adopted by supernatural entities in the local graveyard after his family is murdered. This article draws on the notion of the “construed reader,” and combines two cognitive stylistic frameworks to analyse the opening section of the novel. In doing so, the article explores the representation and significance of the family home in relation to what follows in the narrative. The analysis largely draws on Text World Theory (Werth, 1999; Gavins, 2007), but also integrates some aspects of Cognitive Grammar (Langacker, 2008), which allows for a more nuanced discussion of textual features. The article pays particular attention to the way Gaiman frames his narrative and positions his reader to view the fictional events from a distinctive vantage point and subsequently demonstrates that a stylistic analysis of children’s literature can lay bare how such writing is designed with a young readership in mind.

Citation

Giovanelli, M. (in press). Construing the child reader: a cognitive stylistic analysis of the opening to Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. Children's Literature in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-016-9285-3

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 19, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Jun 4, 2016
• Deposit Date: Jun 15, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 15, 2016
• Journal: Children's Literature in Education
• Print ISSN: 0045-6713
• Electronic ISSN: 0045-6713
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-016-9285-3
• Keywords: Stylistics, Text world theory, Cognitive grammar, Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/796647
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10583-016-9285-3