Reconnaissance of ‘Difference’ in Cognitive Maps: Authenticating Happily Ever After in Julia Quinn’s To Sir Philip with Love

Abstract

This study explores differences in individual cognitive mapping of the protagonists in Julia Quinn’s novel, To Sir Philip with Love. A qualitative analysis of the maps, cartographed on physiological and psychological planes, finds them to be diverse in nature. A “difference” is developed, step by step, in the mental cognitive mapping of the female protagonist of Eloise and in the physical cognitive maps of the character the male protagonist, Philip. Nonetheless, the thesis lies in the inherent creativity caused by the collision of two varied cognitions. Analysis of these cognitions involves the creation of these characters according to the basic cognitive structure of the romance readers as well. After an investigation of the ‘mindscaping’ model, developed primarily around the main characters in To Sir Philip with Love, it is concluded that the positivity in the conflicting maps is established because of the genre of the novel, in which there is a need to channel the individual cognition towards the creation of a larger cognitive map for the readers, with authentication of Happily Ever After as its goal. Furthermore, this paper also locates the status of these findings within the romance narrative; authentication of HEA, works as a major building force in molding and constructing the authorial, fictional and reader cognition.