Narrative Strategies and Mind Style in Emma Donoghue’s Room

This study investigates the concept of Mind Style in Emma Donoghue’s 2010 novel Room, which is partly based on the Fritzl case that emerged in Austria in 2008. Donoghue narrates the story from the point of view of Jack, a five-year-old boy who was born and held in captiv- ity along with his mother by Old Nick. Jack’s cognitive development is affected by his limited access to knowledge and the external world. Here, I apply a linguistic approach to account for the way the receiver perceives Jack’s Mind Style and his linguistic and cognitive development as the events unfold. To this end, I discuss Jack’s peculiar linguistic choices and patterns in terms of grammar, vocabulary, figurative speech and interactional behaviour. The systematic investigation of these stylistic features demonstrates how they can contribute to the under- standing of the developmental process of a child’s mind style that may be hindered by exter- nal factors and/or traumatic experiences.