Cognitive Metaphor as a Means of Mental Representation of Reality in Taras Prokhasko’s The UnSimple
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2025-12-02
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Університет імені Альфреда Нобеля
Анотація
The article is devoted to the analysis of cognitive metaphor as a means of mental reflection of reality in Taras Prokhasko’s novel UnSimple. It focuses on how metaphorical models structure the artistic world of a literary work and convey the peculiarities of the author’s worldview.
The aim of the study is to identify the peculiarities of cognitive metaphor functioning as a means of mental reflection of reality in Taras Prokhasko’s literary work, to determine its role in the formation of the f igurative system of the novel and the author’s vision of reality.
The following tasks are subordinated to the aim: to consider the theoretical foundations of cognit ive metaphor analysis within cognitive linguistics as a methodological basis for the study of literary texts; to analyse existing classifications and types of cognitive metaphors in language; to determine which types of cognitive metaphors are represented in the work, how the relationship between conceptual structures and metaphorical thinking manifests itself; to investigate the role and functions of cognitive metaphor in the constructing and representating the mental picture of the world depicted in the novel.
The material for the study is the text of the novel UnSimple, which stands out for its high metaphorical density, multi-layered symbols and internal philosophy. The analysis is carried out by means of cognitive and contextual analytical methods, taking into account philosophical-anthropological and ontological approaches to the interpretation of a literary work. In the course of the work, a number of conceptual areas have been identified that organise the artistic space of the novel: memory, history, nature, path, destiny, voice, love, space. Each of these spheres is constructed through metaphorical models that add dynamism, inner depth, and existential content to these domains.
Groups of structural, orientational, and ontological metaphors have been identified. Structural metaphors such as “life – journey,” “history – place,” and “letter – memory” shape the narrative logic of the novel: the characters’ lives are understood as a path connected with the exploration of space, a return to their origins, and a search for identity. The orientational metaphors “upward movement – enlightenment” and “downward movement – darkness” reflect the internal changes of the characters and their spiritual experience. Ontological metaphors, including “man – universe,” “love – balance of the world,” and “voice – life force,” emphasise the philosophical and existential dimension of the literary work, where the inner state of the individual determines the quality of their connection with the world.
Special attention is paid to how metaphor is used to construct the image of memory as a means of returning to, collecting and reinterpreting ancestral and individual history. Memory in the novel is a space capable of both preserving the existing and transforming it, while letters and voices act as material carriers of this memory.
It has been established that in T. Prokhasko’s novel, metaphor performs the following functions: cognitive (conceptualising) (structures the characters’ experiences, allows them to comprehend reality: “life – path,” “fate – direction”); interpretative (helps the protagonists to rethink the history of their own family and the events that determined their existence: “history – place”); emotional and value-based (conveys inner states, spiritual shifts, existential experiences: “movement in darkness – search for truth”); aesthetic (poetic) (creates artistic imagery and unique poetics of the text); philosophical-existential (shapes the author’s understanding of existence, human relations with the world: “man – universe”); identifying (connects the individual with the landscape, family, memory of place: “place – key to history”); communicativememorial (ensures the transfer of experience between generations, the preservation of voice, the persistence of memory: “letter – memory,” “voice – life”).
The results of the study prove that metaphor in the novel is foundational to constructing artistic reality, serves to form the author’s picture of the world, and is a tool for representing the characters’ experiences. Cognitive metaphor thus bridges the physical and spiritual, individual and collective, historical and mythological dimensions of human existence. The novel ultimately models a world where language does not describe reality, but creates it.
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Ключові слова
когнітивна метафора, структурна метафора, орієнтаційна метафора, онтологічна метафора, просторово-часова метафора, метафора взаємодії, cognitive metaphor, structural metaphor, orientational metaphor, ontological metaphor, spatio-temporal metaphor, interaction metaphor