Introduction: Language, the Senses and Mental Time Travel

This chapter puts forward an argument for studying embodiment, and embodied memory in particular, as a stylistic phenomenon. It introduces the concept of body memory with reference to the embodied cognition hypothesis in cognitive linguistics and experimental evidence on the role of the body in remembering. It then zooms in on the main linguistic tools used in the book’s analyses, the notion of construal in Cognitive Grammar and conceptual metaphors that allow for understanding the passage of time in bodily terms. The chapter furthermore provides a territory-mapping discussion of sensory memory in cognitive science and particularly the psychological phenomenon of mental time travel. Lastly, the book’s stylistic take on the lyric and the overall structure of the book are presented.