Cognitive-matrix analysis as a tool for exploring cultural identity of a fiction author: a study of M. Porter’s “A grandmother begins the story”

Abstract

The present paper belongs to a series of articles with a focus on ethnospecific concepts and identity construction in multicultural fiction from a cognitive- functional perspective. It seeks to take a new look on ethnospecific concepts, namely those which belong to an author’s idioconceptual subsystem, the latter being understood as a unique configuration of concepts in one’s mind, and constitute cognitive matrices. In accordance with N.N. Boldyrev’s research, the term «cognitive matrix» is used to denote a system of interconnected cognitive contexts which open onto different conceptual domains. The aim of the study is to demonstrate the potential of using cognitive-matrix analysis to reveal the connections between the cognitive contexts in the structure of an ethnospecific concept which unfold in a work of fiction, as well as the conceptual domains they are related to, on the one hand, and the many facets of an author’s cultural identity on the other. The paper outlines the results of the cognitive-matrix analysis of the concept BISON as represented in the novel “A Grandmother Begins the Story” by M. Porter, a Canadian writer of Métis background. Detail is given on several cognitive contexts in the structure of the concept in question pertaining to the following conceptual domains: NATURE, HISTORY, SPIRITUAL CULTURE, SPACE, TIME. The results obtained show that the ways in which the ethnospecific concept BISON functions in the text under consideration are affiliated with the writer’s identity and allow her not only to implement her creative ideas but also actualize her cultural identity in fiction.

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