Cognitive Literary Studies Research Articles

Felt Anticipation: Rhythm, Expectation, and Emotion in Friederike Mayröcker’s Poetic Spoken Atmospheres

Abstract This paper addresses the work of the Austrian poet Friederike Mayröcker (1924–2021) with an interdisciplinary approach contextualised within Cognitive Poetics and Cognitive Literary Theory studies. The specific focus of this study is the voice and the meaning produced through the proposed notion of a ‘poetic spoken atmosphere’. The poetic spoken atmosphere is understood here not as the unique property of an audio-text but rather as an intersubjective phenomenon emerging at the intersection of the poetic language and a listener. This notion underlines the importance of voice and its effects in the dynamics of poetry reception in order to investigate sound patterns and meaning-making dynamics, approaching three specific processes – rhythm, expectation, and emotion. The general theoretical frame of this study is based on principles of both phenomenology and cognitive sciences. Likewise, the analysis of Mayröcker’s poems is based on her recordings, available on the Lyrikline platform of the Haus für Poesie Berlin, from which spectrograms were generated to complement the textual and acoustic analysis. The observations of this study address the vocal structures modulating what can be termed an ‘insideness’, which allows to analyze sound attributes such as duration, intensity, ubiquity, and disappearing. Recognising such attributes help us to understand the emotional level of poetic sounds, i. e. the relationship between feeling and meaning in listening, hypothesising that meaning is indeed felt. Finally, the paper offers a comparative perspective that suggests further research on the basis of the paper’s theoretical-analytical methodology, and it provides specific examples from several literary systems.

Literary Metaphor Comprehension in the Rational and Experiential Cognitive Styles of Human Thinking

Prior research on the poetic metaphor interpretation has focused on describing metaphoric structure and identifying its principles by observing semantically mapped properties of a metaphor. Cognitive literary studies have highlighted an experimental approach to the metaphoric thinking. The experimental approach examines, among others, the empirical processes of metaphor interpretation and comprehension. For metaphor processing, emergent meanings are crucial. We already have many reports, findings and normative data on metaphor processing, but individual cognitive mechanisms and variations across people have received an insufficient attention. To address this issue, this empirical study examines the influence of rational (analytical) and experiential (intuitive) cognitive styles on the comprehension of a poetic literary metaphor. In our statistical analysis, we have used a fractional pooling of the participants. It highlights the non-identical metaphor processes in rational and experiential cognitive preferences. According to our findings, people with a preference for the experiential cognitive style produce relatively more emergent metaphorical meanings than people with a preference for the rational cognitive style. These findings contribute to the more complex knowledge of the metaphoric thinking consequences. Keywords: Literary metaphor; Interpretation of metaphor; Rational (analytical) cognitive style; Experiential (intuitive) cognitive style; Emergent metaphorical meaning

Ekphrasis of the default mode: Simulating past, future and fictional worlds

Perspectives on ekphrasis theory are advancing cognitive approaches. Despite this, the science of the brain’s default mode network rarely emerges in cognitive literary studies or ekphrasis discussion. When left unfocused, the brain in its default mode tends to ruminate on the past, speculate about the future, daydream about unlikely events and analyse the meaning of what others might say or think. The memory-imagination system, also referred to as “mental time travel”, helps us construct simulations of past, future and/or fictional events. This essay proposes an understanding of ekphrasis which engages activities of mental time travel and simulation to help render experience in the minds of readers/writers. This paper does not venture into the neuroscience debate, but rather, it explores the brain’s default mode in the contexts of ekphrasis criticism and cognitive literary studies. I refer to Jessica Au’s novella Cold Enough for Snow (2022) to illustrate examples of ekphrasis writing which – through the depiction of art, objects and images (imagined or real) – engages the systems of mental time travel and simulation to interpret complexities of the world and help render perceptual experiences in the narrative imagining.

3D LETTER: AESTHETIC PRACTICE, HISTORY AND RESEARCH PROSPECTS

As a language phenomenon, literature resists being described in terms of linguistic units and structures. Of key importance is the aesthetic experience of language and its uses in context. The experience is particularly dependent on the changing formats of communication, the development of the technologies of production and distribution of texts. This dependency, in turn, creates fresh stimuli for creative experimental work with word and letter. The nature of these processes being largely pre-reflexive invites and presupposes the effort of reflection. The potential for ‘self-problematization’ contained in a literary text is a crucially important but yet largely unexplored aspect of its meaning and form. It invites a philologist to try out new analytic techniques. Perspectives of present day developments in cognitive literary studies are closely related to the so called ‘material turn’ and ‘experiential turn’ in the humanities. The means of poetic expressivity are transformed in the changing media field providing for the increasingly multisensorial experience of writing and reading. The alliance of literary scholarship with cognitive research in embodied and situated knowledge is promising of new fruit.

Literature as Uncertainty Practice: An Anomaly at the End of Literature

Literature emerges as an uncertainty practice in the context of today’s volatile environments. Considering literary texts as linguistic constructions reprogramming our lifeworld through formal constraints and creative rethinking, from the perspective of cognitive literary studies, Karin Kukkonen proposes an argument for the continued relevance of literature.

Metafiction, Defamiliarization and Cognitive Science: Andrew Crumey’s Mr Mee and Richard Powers’ Galatea 2.2

Abstract The present article considers two metafictional novels published at the end of the 20th century against the background of cognitive literary studies. The formal features of the novels are discussed with a view to the way they defamiliarize various concepts: fiction itself, consciousness, memory, science, art, reading, the internet, artificial intelligence, etc. The novels’ attempts at fostering a dialogue between fiction and the humanities, on the one hand, and science and technology, on the other, are mirrored by the reader’s vacillation between engagement and detachment and the effects of the texts’ self-reflexivity on the reader’s mind.

On the Complexity of Literary and Popular Fiction

Research findings in cognitive literary studies show that lifetime exposure to literary versus popular fiction has a differential association with social cognition processes such as psychological essentialism, attributional complexity, and, particularly, with Theory of Mind. Experimental findings further show that brief exposure to literary, but not popular fiction, boosts performance on Theory of Mind. These results are interpreted as stemming from the greater complexity of the characters and plots of literary fiction; a claim that is consistent with evidence that readers view literary fiction characters as more complex than popular fiction characters. Here we focus on style, and test whether said differential complexity finds a parallel in the language of these two types of fiction. Results of Natural Language Processing analyses on a corpus of literary and popular fiction texts confirm that literary fiction has greater lexical and syntax complexity than popular fiction.

A Review of Neurocognitive Interpretations of Australian Literature: Criticism in the Age of Neuroawareness

A Review of <i>Neurocognitive Interpretations of Australian Literature: Criticism in the Age of Neuroawareness</i>

КОНЦЕПТОСФЕРА САКРАЛЬНОГО У ЗБІРЦІ "САД БОЖЕСТВЕННЫХ ПѢСНЕЙ" ГРИГОРІЯ СКОВОРОДИ

The collection of metaphysical poems by Hrihory Skovoroda "The Garden of Divine Songs" is considered from the standpoint of biblical hermeneutics and cognitive literary studies. The question of the relevance of the study of baroque lyrics through the use of modern literary methods is clarified. The expediency of using the concepts "concept" and "Christian concept" in relation to the study of the sphere of the sacred is determined. Particular attention is paid to the variety of approaches found in scientific studies of the "sacred" as a category. Analysis of poems from the collection - 30 (thirty) - presented in the form of a table with the definition of ideas, main concepts and conceptual metaphors. On the basis of the conceptual analysis, the basic concepts that form the conceptual sphere of the sacred in the collection "Garden of Divine Songs" and explained in other philosophical and poetic works of the Ukrainian artist are highlighted, namely: SIN AND ATONEMENT, GOD (CHRIST, SPIRIT), FREEDOM, HAPPINESS, SALVATION, CROSS and others. Since hermeneutic analysis is connected with the universality of linguistic structures, it seems natural to combine it with conceptual analysis in order to clarify the textual meanings in metaphysical lyrics, which, in fact, is mostly expressed by hidden signs, symbols and authorial hints in the form of intertextual inlays. The artistic interpretation of the text, which is assumed by the hermeneutic analysis, is closely related to the cognitive and evaluative characteristics of both the hidden meanings themselves and the determination of the degree of the "author's presence" in the artistic text. Therefore, the axiological component mutually determines the application of conceptual analysis, and as a result, the definition of the conceptosphere of the sacred in the above-mentioned collection of poems. Special attention is paid to the figure of Hrihory Skovoroda as an extraordinary creative nature and baroque personality who was ahead of his time and remains relevant both by himself and by his creative achievements to this day.

Особенности сторителлинга в настольной ролевой игре Dungeons &amp; Dragons

The research aims to determine the features of storytelling of the Dungeons &amp; Dragons tabletop role-playing game. The paper is novel in that it is the first to consider both storytelling and tabletop role-playing games through the lens of cognitive literary studies. Modern storytelling has many features of mythological-folklore communication along with the influence of written culture, which is reflected in the process of constructing a narrative in tabletop role-playing games. This process occurs simultaneously in several interconnected frames (game, narrative, social and dramatic) in the process of player communication. The players see themselves as a player, a player character and a person at the same time and interact in all the frames at once in their own way of describing and bringing the setting to life. Mythological-folklore and fantasy clichés are widely used in the game, but its uniqueness is maintained due to the very process of collaboration - prepared written text elements and oral improvisation are involved. From the viewpoint of the plot, the games are a series of quests with a non-linear chronology within a multiverse and a narrative emerges from a constant discussion of the rules, roles and boundaries of game reality. As a result, it has been proved that storytelling in the studied tabletop role-playing game is carried out through the creation of a blend of mental spaces and frames, where players experience a liminal state and transformation with the help of verbal interactive experience.

Alexis Wright’s story words and story-worlds out of the shadows: the politics of reading and writing Carpentaria

ABSTRACT Drawing on Alexis Wright’s interviews and essays on the creative writing process, this article gives insight into how the Waanyi novelist conceived Carpentaria (2006) and the philosophy she holds for literature and storytelling. In the first two sections, notions of truth, modal thought, reference, simulation, imagination and reality will be discussed in relation to Lubomír Doležel’s propounded theory of possible worlds. Literary theory, the philosophy of fiction and cognitive literary studies are the three main areas that will be investigated to probe the storytelling dynamics of imagination and reality. In the last section, we will bring to the fore the ways in which novel-writing is for Alexis Wright an exercise in gap-filling, one that brings the silenced details out of the shadows.

Persuasion by Immersion: The Narratio of Lysias 1, On the Killing of Eratosthenes

Abstract In his paper on Lysias, Dionysius of Halicarnassus characterizes the effect of Lysias’ enargeia as the power through which the listener “seems to see the things shown and to be almost in the company of the characters whom the orator introduces”. The capacity to give the audience a sense of being present at the narrated scene, vividly imagining the people, places, and actions, is one the most powerful instruments in Lysias’ persuasive toolbox. The ‘sense of presence’ created by Lysias’ narrative style will be approached as a form of what in cognitive literary studies has become known as immersion, a concept that is defined by in terms that are remarkably similar to Dionysius’ characterization of Lysias’ style, as “the experience through which a fictional world acquires the presence of an autonomous, language-independent reality populated by live human beings” (Ryan 2015, 9). Analyzing Lysias’ narrative techniques through the lens of their immersive power is interesting for several reasons. Psychological research has found evidence that highly immersed readers are more likely to be persuaded by the point of view implicit in a narrative than readers who are less immersed. Approaching Lysias’ style in terms of its immersive qualities also allows us analyze the text in terms of a wide and diverse range of linguistic and narratological devices: not only the strategic use of graphic (“vivid”) details, but also the use of verbal tense and aspect, vocatives, direct speech, the narrator’s visibility, and the narrative’s spatial and temporal organization, handling of perspective (focalization), and its capacity to raise suspense and to engage the audience’s attention and emotions.

Cognitive Literary Studies: A Conversation with Marco Caracciolo, Monika Fludernik, Patrick Colm Hogan and Karin Kukkonen

The article proposes a conversation on Cognitive Literary Studies with Marco Caracciolo, Monika Fludernik, Patrick Colm Hogan and Karin Kukkonen. Starting from a methodological reflection on the interdisciplinarity of this field, the scholars were asked to consider its foundations by focusing on the relationship between science and literature, and lastly to ponder the prospects of narrative theory, cognitive narratology and literary universals. The interview is preceded by a brief introduction which attempts to outline its purpose.

(Un)triggering Anorexia: A Cognitive Literary Analysis of Lia "the Liar" in Wintergirls (2009).

The importance of authorial intention has been debated extensively in literary studies. In cognitive literary studies, however, the effects books provoke in readers are of greater relevance. With an unreliable intradiegetic narrator, ambivalent about her denial of hunger, Wintergirls (2009), a US YA anorexia novel, embodies the spiraling network of lies that feeds this condition. This essay takes Wintergirls as a starting point to discuss the therapeutic or harmful effects of literature, over and above the intentions of the writer. Adopting a cognitive literary perspective, this essay proposes the concept of an "unreliable reader," and uses that concept to demonstrate that the novel has a self-triggering potential to reinforce anorexia. This is an unusual approach, inasmuch as it runs counter to previous positive literary criticism of Wintergirls, but it is a perspective in urgent need of reconsideration for the sake of disordered readers.

THE MEANING OF SILENCE IN THE WORK OF HERTA MÜLLER

Herta Müller writes about suffering caused by social oppression, often depicting the dictatorial regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu. Her literary works are marked by her first-person narrative perspective and a principled confrontation with totalitarianism and illiberalism. She is deeply interested in language and regularly uses metaphors to illuminate its functioning in the conditions of suffering and subjugation. This paper will focus on metaphors for silence and categorise them into those sensory modalities and concrete phenomena (vision, touch, smell, eating, speaking, somatic experience, force, space, motion, container, physical objects, manipulation, destruction, life, and death) that serve as source domains. Despite its limitations, this categorisation will help understand the motivation behind the associations between the target domain of silence and its vehicles. Müller highlights the figurative nature of the relationship between silence and more concrete concepts, establishing connections between it and those ideas that commonly relate to bodily experience. This paper will reveal that silence does not exist as a well-defined concept and acquires new meanings depending on the context and the metaphorical images that are used to explain it. Drawing on conceptual metaphor theory within the framework of cognitive literary studies, the author suggests that the meaning of silence is not random and relies on conceptual and linguistic conventions; Müller estranges these conventions, and thus foregrounds the figurative yet motivated meaning of silence.

THE MEANING OF SILENCE IN THE WORK OF HERTA MÜLLER

Herta Müller writes about suffering caused by social oppression, often depicting the dictatorial regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu. Her literary works are marked by her first-person narrative perspective and a principled confrontation with totalitarianism and illiberalism. She is deeply interested in language and regularly uses metaphors to illuminate its functioning in the conditions of suffering and subjugation. This paper will focus on metaphors for silence and categorise them into those sensory modalities and concrete phenomena (vision, touch, smell, eating, speaking, somatic experience, force, space, motion, container, physical objects, manipulation, destruction, life, and death) that serve as source domains. Despite its limitations, this categorisation will help understand the motivation behind the associations between the target domain of silence and its vehicles. Müller highlights the figurative nature of the relationship between silence and more concrete concepts, establishing connections between it and those ideas that commonly relate to bodily experience. This paper will reveal that silence does not exist as a well-defined concept and acquires new meanings depending on the context and the metaphorical images that are used to explain it. Drawing on conceptual metaphor theory within the framework of cognitive literary studies, the author suggests that the meaning of silence is not random and relies on conceptual and linguistic conventions; Müller estranges these conventions, and thus foregrounds the figurative yet motivated meaning of silence.&#x0D;

Русская литературная критика в аспекте методологии когнитивизма

Cognitive literary studies is a modern scientific direction, the methodology of which is aimed at studying literature as a special type of mental activity. If the criticism is considered as a borderline phenomenon that is close to scientific and artistic discourse, then we can see in it the same cognitive and thought processes that characterize artistic creativity itself. Though in criticism they take on a “secondary”, meta literary nature as the subject matter of criticism becomes literature, and the goal is its interpretation and evaluation. The analysis of literary criticism that is seen in terms of cognitivism methodology makes it possible to identify certain cognitive mechanisms of criticism that are involved in this process. The article considers the phenomena of “transportation”, “embedding”, “categorization”, “metaphorization” and “interpretation” as these cognitive mechanisms of criticism, based on the materials of Russian literary criticism of the nineteenth century.

Dissonant and consonant narrators : Dorrit Cohn's concepts, narratorial Stance theory and cognitive literary studies

Our paper reconsiders the notions of dissonance and consonance introduced in Dorrit Cohn's Transparent Minds (1978). Cohn applies the terms to psycho- and self-narration and defines them with reference to the narrator's prominence, distance/intimacy as well as moral and cognitive privilege with reference to the character. Taking advantage of stance theory, we argue that dissonance and consonance are best taken as dimensions of the narrator's attitude towards the character and/or the narratee, we relate aspects of consonance/dissonance to the basic facets of focalization – emotional, interpretive, and evaluative – and we analyze them in terms of convergence or divergence and further, in the case of divergence, in terms of superiority or inferiority. We claim that there is no automatic correlation between narratorial consonance/dissonance and reliability. Overall, we believe that narratorial consonance/dissonance deserves much attention because it has great impact on the reader's reception of the narrator and characters.

Body in Mind: Reader Experience in Early English Text Worlds

In Cicero's Dream of Scipio, the protagonist surveys a panoptic vision of the earth, defying the limitations of the human body while experiencing the world mentally and physically. The Dream was known in England in the early medieval period through Macrobius' commentary. Although becoming influential only in the eleventh century, in this essay we suggest that its modelling of embodied experience and guiding of the reader's mental vision are also features of pre-Conquest geographical thought. Beginning from the panoptic orientation of this text, we explore the worlds that are created in pre-Conquest visual and textual media and consider how they might have been experienced by their early English readers, drawing on cognitive literary studies. Taking the examples of the Cotton World Map, the Old English Orosius, the writings of Bede, the elegiac poem The Ruin and the Old English Boethius, we move between the overlapping thematic categories of vision, body and mind to circle from panoptic views of the world to the mental mapping of an ancient city and back again. We demonstrate, therefore, that the creators of early English textual culture were aware of their readers' responses and invited cognitively embodied imaginings of the worlds they presented.

Juno Diaz’s &amp;lt;i&amp;gt;The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao&amp;lt;/i&amp;gt; and the Narration of Empathy

Readers according to Virginia Woolf are co-creators of the text with writers. Reading requires letting imagination loose in order to become transported into a text, thus, eliciting cognitive empathy. Empathy has become recently a field of interest in several disciplines, among which is fiction. Empathic emotions can be elicited in readers, according to Keith Oatley, while reading fiction. This elicitation can be achieved through certain narrative techniques that mostly focus on identification with fictional characters. Using Suzanne Keen’s theory of narrative empathy and the theory of mind, adopted from Cognitive Psychology, this study will attempt to examine how Junot Diaz, in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, utilizes narration of empathy that relies on alteration in narrative voice and authorial point of view, shifts in narrational focalization and other narrative and linguistic devices to immerse the reader in the story world of his novel. The study aspires to be an addition to the new branch of Cognitive Literary Studies that investigates literature through the focus of brain science and by extension the usefulness of Cognitive Studies to Literary Studies and vice versa.