ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the scene is set for the study. It begins by describing an anecdotal teaching experience that pertained to one of the authors. The question that is explored is, “how truthfully can a person draw a scene that they read about in a work of literature based on what they are apprehending in their mind’s eye at that moment?” This question is set against a disputed field. On the one hand, there is the view from textual stylistics that the language in text, and especially such features as deixis, point of view, and pronouns, can instruct a reader in how to experience mental imagery. On the other hand, there is the empirical, reader-response research, conducted in the wake of the cognitive turn, that says that the images we see in our minds upon reading a text are largely arbitrary and individual. What makes the approach in this book novel is that it seeks to adopt a method that has not been explored before in this particular field, namely, the manual act of drawing. Two oppositional hypotheses are generated based on the two divergent views: one, that language does instruct how to see in one’s mind, and another, that language does not instruct how to see in one’s mind. In the course of the book, based on the data presented, the researchers seek to uncover evidence that either refutes or accepts either or both of these claims.
