Point of View in Simon Stephens' The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: A Cognitive Stylistic Study

Abstract

The English playwright, Simon Stephens has written The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2012), a play based on a novel written by Mark Haddon (2003) which is considered as the first adapted play from a novel. The play is about a boy named Christopher who sees the dog of his neighbour dead. So, he makes an investigation to know who the killer is. During the investigation, he discovers that his father is the killer, and his mother is still alive after he has told him that she is dead. Some studies have already been done on The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, as novel, by focusing on psychological aspects and relating it to linguistic elements; however, no critic has ever presented a more comprehensive analysis of this work as a play by examining the ASD as a central situation and presenting the worlds that the play consists of, through cognitive stylistic studies. This study clarifies the way that the point of view, DST, and Possible Worlds help in understanding the structure of the play. It shows the way(s) the symptoms of ASD can be related to the way the playwright's point of view is structured and un-folded. The study depends on certain theories and approaches such as McIntyre's (1975-) concept of viewpoint, and how it can be applied on a dramatic text. Deictic shift theory is also used, in addition to possible worlds and Ryan's (1946-) perspective of this theory in order to clarify the structure of the play, and to show the worlds that the play has been structured upon. Furthermore, it analyses the play by drawing on certain linguistic elements like vocabulary, grammar, and deixis. They are applied to the language of the central character, Christopher. Consequently, through the mentioned approaches, the point of view of the playwright will be examined to show how autism is represented in the main character of the play.