Text World Theory and Keats' Poetry The Cognitive Poetics of Desire, Dreams and Nightmares

Text World Theory and Keats' Poetry applies advances in cognitive poetics and text world theory to four poems by the nineteenth century poet John Keats. It takes the existing text world theory as a starting point and draws on stylistics, literary theory, cognitive linguistics, cognitive psychology and dream theories to explore reading poems in the light of their emphasis on states of desire, dreaming and nightmares. It accounts for the representation of these states and the ways in which they are likely to be processed, monitored and understood. Text World Theory and Keats' Poetry advances both the current field of cognitive stylistics but also analyses Keats in a way that offers new insights into his poetry. It is of interest to stylisticians and those in literary studies.

Marcello Giovanelli is a Tutor in the School of English, University of Nottingham, UK

1. Introduction / 2. Text World Theory / 3. Dreams / 4. Modal Worlds / 5. The Eve of St. Agnes / 6. Nightmare Worlds / 7. Isabella; Or, The Pot of Basil / 8. ‘La belle dame sans merci' / 9. ‘This living hand, now warm and capable' / 10. Conclusion / Bibliography / Index