MENTAL SPACES AND COGNITIVE MODELLING OF POSSIBILITY IN ROBERT MUSILʼS NOVEL THE MAN WITHOUT QUALITIES

Abstract

The article investigates the cognitive mechanisms of modelling possibility in Robert Musilʼs novel The Man Without Qualities through the framework of Gilles Fauconnierʼs Mental Space Theory and the Conceptual Blending Theory developed by Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner. The relevance of the study lies in the growing interest of contemporary cognitive linguistics in construction of meaning, the modelling of alternative scenarios, and the functioning of cognitive structures in literary discourse. The aim of this article is to examine the role of mental spaces in the cognitive construction of fictional world in Musilʼs novel and to analyze the mechanisms through which possibility is conceptually constructed. The theoretical framework is based on the works of Gilles Fauconnier, Mark Turner, Ronald Langacker, Elisabeth Zima, Barbara Dancygier, Vivien Evans, as well as contemporary research by the Ukrainian cognitive school. The article reveals that the category of Möglichkeitssinn functions not only as a philosophical category defining Ulrich’s worldview, but also as a cognitive mechanism for constructing hypothetical, alternative and counterfactual mental spaces. It has been established that the novel’s artistic discourse is organized through the constant coexistence of the actual and possible worlds, between which conceptual projections take place. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of counterfactual constructions, hypothetical models and modal utterances, which enable the branching out of alternative scenarios for the development of events and shape the novel’s open semantic structure. It is argued that, in the later chapters of the work, the cognitive organization of the fictional world extends beyond the boundaries of individual mental spaces and takes the form of conceptual integration. Based on the relationship between Ulrich and Agathe der andere Zustand concept is analyzed as an integrated conceptual space that arises from the interaction of several constituent spaces and generates new emergent meanings non-present in the original conceptual structures. It is demonstrated that this concept represents an open model of human experience that goes beyond traditional psychological, social or philosophical categories. The findings demonstrate that Mental Space Theory and Conceptual Blending Theory provide an effective methodological framework for analyzing modernist fiction. Their application makes it possible to explain the mechanisms of construction of meaning, the modelling of possible worlds and the cognitive organization of literary discourse in Robert Musilʼs The Man Without Qualities.