This book brings together researchers with cognitive-scientific and literary backgrounds to present innovative research in all three variations on the possible interactions between literary studies and cognitive science. The tripartite structure of the volume reflects a more ambitious conception of what cognitive approaches to literature are and could be than is usually encountered, and thus aims both to map out and to advance the field. The first section corresponds to what most people think of as "cognitive poetics" or "cognitive literary studies": the study of literature by literary scholars drawing on cognitive-scientific methods, findings, and/or debates to yield insights into literature. The second section demonstrates that literary scholars needn't only make use of cognitive science to study literature, but can also, in a reciprocally interdisciplinary manner, use a cognitively informed perspective on literature to offer benefits back to the cognitive sciences. Finally, the third section, "literature in cognitive science", showcases some of the ways in which literature can be a stimulating object of study and a fertile testing ground for theories and models, not only to literary scholars but also to cognitive scientists, who here engage with some key questions in cognitive literary studies with the benefit of their in-depth scientific knowledge and training.
Introduction: A Window on to the Landscape of Cognitive Literary Science
Emily T. Troscianko and Michael Burke SECTION I: LITERATURE THROUGH A COGNITIVE LENS Chapter 1: Scientific Concepts in Literary Studies: Towards Criteria for the Meeting of Literature and Cognitive Science Marcus Hartner Chapter 2: Towards a 'Natural' Bond of Cognitive and Affective Narratology
Caroline Pirlet and Andreas Wirag Chapter 3: 'Annihilation of Self': The Cognitive Challenge of the Sublime
David Miall Chapter 4: The Space between Your Ears: Construal Level Theory, Cognitive Science, and Science Fiction
James Carney Chapter 5: Patterns of Thought: Narrative and Verse
Brian Boyd SECTION II: COGNITION THROUGH A LITERARY LENS Chapter 6: Simulation and the Structure of Emotional Memory: Learning from Arthur Miller's After the Fall.
Patrick Colm Hogan Chapter 7: Cognitive Science and the Double Vision of Fiction
Merja Polvinen Chapter 8: Fantastic Cognition
Karin Kukkonen Chapter 9: Feedback in Reading and Disordered Eating
Emily T. Troscianko Chapter 10: Animal Minds across Discourse Domains David Herman SECTION III: LITERATURE AND COGNITION IN COGNITIVE SCIENCE Chapter 11: Embodied Dynamics in Literary Experience Raymond W. Gibbs, Jr. Chapter 12: How Readers' Lives Affect Narrative Experiences
Richard J. Gerrig and Micah L. Mumper Chapter 13: On Truth and Fiction Keith Oatley Chapter 14: Under Pressure: Norms, Rules, and Coercion in Linguistic Analyses and Literary Readings
Alexander Bergs Chapter 15: Affective and Aesthetic Processes in Literary Reading: A Neurocognitive Poetics Perspective Arthur M. Jacobs
