How Cognition Can Augment Stylistic Analysis

Stylistics has traditionally focused on the formal properties of style. The addition of a cognitive dimension to stylistic analysis might, on the face of it, suggest a move toward a somewhat reductive perspective on interpretation and a de-emphasis on the role that culture, language and style can play in the literary meaning-making processes. This article will aim to show how cognition can in fact augment stylistic analysis. It will also suggest that the inclusion of a cognitive dimension in the domain of stylistics is something that should be welcomed rather than distrusted as it enriches the stylistician's current toolkit. The method employed to highlight this will be to add a cognitive dimension to a very fine stylistic analysis from the 1980s. This will be done in an attempt to show how both approaches, the mainstream and the cognitive, are in fact complementary rather than competitive.