‘NO. ANYWAY THIS ISN’T MY BIRTHDAY’: IMAGE SCHEMAS AND MENTAL SPACES IN PINTER’S THE BIRTHDAY PARTY

Abstract

Cognitive Linguistics has offered a means for analyzing literary texts in an attempt to examine the cognitive processes that the linguistic constructions entail in these texts. This study takes advantage of two fundamental and interrelated approaches in Cognitive Poetics, namely Mental Spaces (Fauconnier, ([1985] 1994, 1997) and Image Schemas (Johnson, 1987; Lakoff & Johnson, 1980) in its attempt to provide an insightful cognitive reading of Pinter’s The Birthday Party (1957).  These two theories are selected because, according to Fauconnier and Turner (2002), they can reflect how a character thinks and whether this thinking is logical or not. Through analyzing some excerpts of the play, this paper intends to find out what happens to the various forms of interaction between image schemas and mental spaces in the mind of the protagonist Stanley that his speech becomes more and more illogical until it finally ends in incomprehensible sounds and then total silence.