Conceptualizing Nationalism in Black Children Literature

Understanding the unity among different individuals who are dispersed in space and time under the umbrella term of nation is not an easily recognizable task. Cognitive criticism has provided the way for delineating the way abstract entities are conceptualized. Nation is conceptualized through cognitive modeling or metaphor that is sometimes referred to as a conceptual metaphor. Cognitive theorists, beginning with George Lakoff, Mark Johnson and Mark Turner, have examined the ways metaphorical structures form the system of thought, language and behavior. Conceptual metaphors are shaped through mapping one domain of experience to another to convey a message about the target which is here the nation. This study intends to analyze the metaphorical patterns discussed by Patrick Colm Hogan concerning discourses on national identity within the African-American children novel, One Crazy Summer by Rita William Garcia. This study explores how nation is imagined and how unity, functionality, affectivity, salience and durability of a nation can be inferred by Black children and affect their identity.

Keywords:

Rita William Garcia , One Crazy Summer , Nation , Cognitive criticism , Conceptual metaphor , identity , African-American Children Literature