Virtuality and Counterfactuality in Hardy's the Going and Lawrence's Shadows: A Cognitive Stylistic Reading

Though virtual and counterfactual1 constructions are usually narrative relevant, the inspection of their presence in poetry and other genres is equally plausible. poetry tends even more than fiction to conjure up and explore realms of irrealism and possibility not to mention impossibility, which are the linchpins of virtuality and counterfactuality. in the current project, these two cognitive aspects are traced in two poems by hardy and lawrence. both poems invest narrative formulas, a matter that further facilitates the application of cognitive findings. more importantly, the poems discard reality and soar high up into surreal dimensions. hence, the worlds of possibility and counterfactuality are tracked down, extracted and analyzed. the way virtuality and counterfactuality operate to convey themes is also investigated. from a cognitive stylistic vantage, both poems expose the poets' conjuration of virtual and/or counterfactual worlds in an attempt to modify, alleviate, and on top mutate and alter the reality about which the text personae seem to entertain discontentment and resentment which at large verges on rejection