Literary Studies in the Age of Cognitive Science

Abstract

This paper gives an overview of the enterprise of cognitive poetics as an area of research in the intersection between cognitive science and literary studies, and examines the role of semiotics within this framework, as it pertains to the playful occupation with expressive signs characteristic of literary art, a representational practice employed in all human cultures. As a form of aesthetic pretense literary communication engages the reader in a mental sharing that, unlike everyday pragmatic communication, does not require joint attention in the sense of attending with mutual awareness to the same object at the same time. The act of literary enunciation is not framed by the participants as deictically rooted in space and time, as is practically oriented, “situated” communication, and represented contents are not intended as direct propositional depictions of observable states of affairs. In these respects literary language use presents an interesting case for semiotics, and indeed for cognitive science which by virtue of having human cognition as its subject, encompasses the realm of imagination and expressive ingenuity. Conversely, from the viewpoint of literary studies, cognitive science can be seen to provide certain epistemological and methodological advantages which grant literary scholars a way of thinking about their objects of study as simultaneously embodying a manifestation of unique choices and particular circumstances of production as well as being indicative of universal processes of meaning construction and interpretation. The paper aims at laying out a foundation for discussing the philosophical underpinnings of the enterprise, and raises some philosophical questions concerning literary meaning as an object of research. These issues in turn make certain methodological considerations relevant which are subsequently discussed, with a view to clarifying potential scientific objectives and illuminating existing incon