Exploring Sub-Worlds in Farzana Aqib’s Poem I Must Adulate: A Text World Theory Approach

Authors

  • Aziz Ullah Khan Assistant Professor, Chairman, Department of English and Applied Linguistics, University of Science and Technology, Bannu, KP, Pakistan
  • Ansar Ali Shah Lecturer in English, AKDC Bannu, Phd English Scholar, Department of English, Muslim Youth (MY) University Japan Road, Islamabad
  • Muhammad Hassan Shah MPhil in English, Lecturer, Department of English and Applied Linguistics, University of Science and Technology, Bannu, KP, Pakistan

Abstract

This study explores how different sub-worlds are created in the poem "I Must Adulate" by Farzana Aqib (2023) using Text World Theory. The theory helps to understand how readers build mental images and meanings while reading a text. This research is qualitative in nature and uses textual analysis to find out how emotional, mental, and imaginary worlds are formed in the poem. It focuses only on the sub-worlds such as epistemic, boulomaic, and attitudinal. The data was collected from the poem itself and analyzed by applying Werth’s (1999) model of Text World Theory. The study finds that the poem contains various sub-worlds that show the speaker’s inner thoughts, wishes, fears, and emotional states. This research helps readers understand how language creates deep meaning beyond surface-level words and offers new ways to analyze poetry through a cognitive linguistic lens.

Keywords:Text World Theory, Sub-worlds, Cognitive Poetics, Farzana Aqib, I Must Adulate, Epistemic World, Boulomaic World, Attitudinal World, Poetry Analysis, Stylistics

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Published

2025-07-25

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 3 (2025): Liberal Journal of Language & Literature Review

Section

Articles