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Towards a cognitive stylistics of the absurd: Joanna Gavins’ Reading the Absurd (2013)

Joanna Gavins’ recently published Reading the Absurd (2013) represents a new step in the research into the literary absurd as it introduces cognitive stylistics as an instrument to clarify its workings. This review article focuses on some of the innovative additions offered by Gavins’ book, specifically, the importance it attributes to the reader and his or her response to absurdist literature. In the wake of earlier studies of the absurd, the article identifies incongruity as a key feature of the absurd. Positing that a cognitive approach to incongruity is much needed in this context, the article then considers how cognitive literary theory can add to our knowledge and understanding of absurdist literature.