Romantic Love and Grief in Bobbie Ann Mason’s “Shiloh”: A Sketch of a Cognitive Narratological Perspective
Romantic Love and Grief in Bobbie Ann Mason’s “Shiloh”: A Sketch of a Cognitive Narratological Perspective

Summary/Abstract: The article investigates the structure of romance and grief narrative included in Bobbie Ann Mason’s “Shiloh,” on the basis of Patrick C. Hogan’s theory of literary universals and his work on affective narratology. Following Hogan, I argue that emotions are deeply embedded in stories and that stories are typically designed so as to manipulate the affective responses of their readers. I will focus on the way the story depicts prototypical stages of romance and grief and where it deviates from universal narratives involving concerning grief, separation, attachment, and romantic love, arguing that the affective and aesthetic potential of the story lies precisely in where it departs from these prototypical narratives. At the same time, I shall speculate on how discourse organization manipulates the formation of affective schemata and empathic alignment in readers.

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