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.
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, with leading scholars illuminating the cognitive, affective, and bodily dimensions of literary reading. Comprised 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.
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 ReaderResponse 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
MarieLaure 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
MaríaÁngeles 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 SecondPerson
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. Maecki
35 Absorption and Impact on SelfConcept 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
Jan Alber is Professor and Chair of New English and American Literature at JLU Giessen University (Germany) and 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). Albers 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.
