DrPeter Harvey

I have recently completed a PhD in Literary Linguistics. My research draws on Text World Theory and the Storyworlds model to investigate readers' mental representations of fictional narratives, and to explore the different strategies readers adopt when comprehending, remembering and summarising narrative texts. In my thesis I argue that Text World Theory can be expanded by incorporating elements of the storyworlds model to account for readers' mental representations of narrative in long term memory. My work is grounded in reader response practices, and I am interested in exploring how empirical data from large numbers of readers can complement traditional literary analyses.

In the context of the climate emergency, I am interested in how cognitive stylistics can help us understand how people conceptualise human agency in a changing world. I plan to extend my PhD research by exploring how readers remember and summarise narratives of environmental destruction and climate change.

My thesis, Recalling Atwood: Text World Theory and Memories of Narrative Fiction is available here:
https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/34814/

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