The Convergence of Mental Spaces and the Personification of Time, Tenacity and Patience in the Novel by Alexander Zalan “The Last Row”

Abstract

The fact that society exists, evolves and subsequently modifies the means of interaction, cannot be denied. It is solely possible due to people’s abilities to enact a mutual link on myriad levels, i.e., social, cultural and cognitive. Nevertheless, there are certain innately entrenched constituents that shape our perception, interpretation and assessment. The dominant concept of my PhD thesis (Cognitive Discourse: Cultural Cognitive Models in the Use of Language) is mental spaces and their potential aptitudes, i.e., analogy mapping, identity connection, mental space framing, the convergence of mental spaces and the moulding or alteration of initial perception of various notions. It must also be noted that although language varies in its surface peculiarities in numerous cultures, this variety is underpinned by universal psychological mechanisms that generate further cultural cognition (Chomsky, 1975; Pinker, 1994).The theory considered, it is probable to draw certain parallels within the framework of the novel “The Last Row” (2021) by attributing mental spaces to a pervading realm of a fantasy novel, delineating core qualities of the main characters and depicting their peculiar features by converging the author’s subjectivity, objective implicatures and virtual implications, thus displaying the applicability of mental spaces not only within the framework of cognitive linguistics or psycholinguistics, but also bringing it further to other academic spheres. The core impetus of this article underlies the scope of analysis that can be attributed even to the most inconspicuous elements of any work, fracturing implications and implicatures and delineating the difference between instant assessments and hypothesis, and ultimate results, implying wholly accumulated elements.