The Routledge Companion to Literature and Cognitive Studies

1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-032-47050-4
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 570 Seiten, Format (B × H): 178 mm x 254 mm

Reihe: Routledge Literature Companions

The Routledge Companion to Literature and Cognitive Studies offers a comprehensive survey of cognitive approaches to literature, introducing the influential theoretical tools and latest developments in this vigorously multi-disciplinary field, by leading scholars illuminating the cognitive, affective, and bodily dimensions of literary reading. Comprising three main sections, this Companion oversees the history of the field, core issues and topics, and the vital new debates of cognitive theory. This volume introduces readers to the many new tools and methodologies in the field, including:

• the context of the first generation of cognitive literary studies

• mental representations and information-processing paradigms

• critical debates and developments, including cognitive cultural studies, 4E cognition and literature, as well as empirical investigations of cognitive processes

• approaches to a variety of literary genres and media.

This comprehensive companion provides an important reference work for upper-level students and researchers delving into the interdisciplinary approaches to literature and cognitive studies.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Alber, Jan

Schneider, Ralf

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Figures

List of Tables

Notes on contributors

Introduction

Jan Alber and Ralf Schneider

PART I

Historical Developments

Cognitive Literary Studies: The History of the Field

1 Narratology and Cognition

Jan Alber

2 The History of the Field: From Reader-Response Theory to Cognitive Literary Studies

Sven Strasen

3 Neurobiology and Literature

Donald R. Wehrs

PART II

Core Issues and Debates

Cognitive Narratology

4 “Natural” Narratology and Experientiality Maria Mäkelä

5 Schema Theory

Catherine Emmott and Marc Alexander

6 Cognition and the Reception of Literary Character

Ralf Schneider

7 Possible Worlds and Cognition

Marie-Laure Ryan

8 The Phenomenon of Narrative Immersion

Federico Pianzola

9 Blending and Literature

Marcus Hartner

10 The Cognitive Processing of Experimental Literature

Lars Bernaerts

11 Interdisciplinary Mind Modeling: Exploratory Cycles in Cognitive Science, Narrative Theory, and Fictional Creativity

Marco Bernini

Cognitive Linguistics and Literature

12 Stylistics

Peter Stockwell

13 Text World Theory

Sara Whiteley

14 Cognitive Grammar in Literature

Marcello Giovanelli and Chloe Harrison

15 Storyworld Possible Selves

María-Ángeles Martínez

16 Metaphor, Cognition, and Narrative Fiction

Yanna Popova

Literature and Emotional Impact

17 The Emotional Impact of Literature Patrick Colm Hogan

18 Neuroscience and Aesthetic Emotions

Paul Armstrong

19 Literature and Persuasion

Kobie van Krieken and José Sanders

PART III

New Debates

4E Cognition and Literary Reading

20 What Is 4E Cognition?

Regina E. Fabry

21 Building Blocks for an Embodied Narratology

Marco Caracciolo

22 Literature and Enactive Cognition

Merja Polvinen

23 Situation Models and Embodied Cognition

Jessica Jumpertz

Culture and Cognition

24 Cognition and Cultural Studies

Marcus Friedrich and Rüdiger Heinze

25 Narrative, Culture, and Identity

Deborah de Muijnck

26 Practical Suggestions for Using Research on Theory of Mind in Literary and Cultural Studies

Lisa Zunshine

27 The Phylogenetic Basis of Poetic Behavior

Katja Mellmann

28 Cognition and Culture: The Subversive Potential of Second-Person Narratives

Denise Wong

29 Postcolonial Cognitive (Literary) Studies

Alexandra Effe

30 Cognition and Gender: Handwriting, Multimodal Poetry, and the Upending of Stereotypes

Torsa Ghosal

Empirical Literary Studies

31 The Empirical Investigation of Cognitive Processes: The Ghost of Scientism in Empirical Literary Studies

Paul Sopcak

32 Foregrounding: Toward a More Comprehensive Understanding

Frank Hakemulder, Amir Harash, and Giulia Scapin

33 Engaging with Literature in Print, on Screen Displays, and in Audiobooks: Current Findings and Perspectives for Future Empirical Research

Anne Mangen and Kari Spjeldnas

34 Empirical Ecocriticism

W. P. Malecki

35 Absorption and Impact on Self-Concept When Reading Climate Fiction

Cristina Loi, Massimo Lusetti and Moniek Kuijpers

36 The Sound of Meaning, and the Meaning of Sound: Phonetic Iconicity in Literature

Willie van Peer and Anna Chesnokova

Über Autor(innen)

Jan Alber is Professor and Chair of New English and American Literature at JLU Giessen University (Germany) and a past president of the International Society for the Study of Narrative (ISSN). He is the author of Narrating the Prison (2007) and Unnatural Narrative: Impossible Worlds in Fiction and Drama (2016). Alber’s articles have been published in journals such as European Journal of English Studies, Journal of Narrative Theory, Literature Compass, Narrative, Poetics Today, Scientific Study of Literature, Storyworlds, and Style. He is the editor (or co-editor) of 13 edited collections, the most recent one being Pandemic Storytelling (with Deborah de Muijnck and Jessica Jumpertz) (2025). Alber is currently working on a UKRI project (funded by AHRC and the German Research Foundation) on post-postmodernist fictions of the digital (PPFDs) with Alice Bell.

Ralf Schneider is Professor and Chair of English Literature at RWTH Aachen University, where he is also Co-Founder and Director of the Aachen Center for Cognitive and Empirical Literary Studies (ACCELS). He has worked and published on various aspects of British literary and cultural history. However, his research focus has been on cognitive approaches to literary reading, in particular the reception of literary characters. A monograph on character constellations and the cognitive and empirical study of literature, to be published with Routledge, is in preparation.