%0 Journal Article
%T ¡®Something happened, something bad¡¯: Blackouts, uncertainties and event construal in The Girl on the Train
%A Marcello Giovanelli
%J Language and Literature
%@ 1461-7293
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/0963947017752807
%X This article examines the representation of mind style in Paula Hawkins¡¯ (2015) best-selling novel The Girl on the Train. It examines how Hawkins presents the fictional mind of Rachel, a character who is affected by anterograde amnesia as a result of alcoholic blackouts. Rachel¡¯s narrative voice drives the novel, and its retelling of events is characterised by her inability to recall important information related to the night that a young woman disappeared and was murdered. This article specifically draws on the Cognitive Grammar notion of construal to explore the presentation of Rachel¡¯s mind style and its affordances and limitations. In doing so, it builds on developing scholarship that has identified the potential for Cognitive Grammar to provide a richly nuanced account of the representation of a fictional mind. The analysis specifically examines two ways in which event construal is presented: nominal grounding strategies and reference point relationships. For the latter, the article also develops emerging work that has sought to make a connection between Cognitive Grammar and Text World Theory in terms of how mental representations are projected by the text
%K Cognitive Grammar
%K mind style
%K The Girl on the Train
%K construal
%K Text World Theory
%K cognitive stylistics
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0963947017752807