Issue #0

Toward a theory of cognitive poetics

Plot

Cognitive poetics is an interdisciplinary approach to the study of literature employing the tools offered by cognitive science; it attempts to find out how poetic language and form, or the critic's decisions, are constrained and shaped by human information processing. The present approach uses cognitive theories to illuminate literature. It emphasizes the particular differences between cognitive processes in general and their unique exploitation for literary purposes; hence its generalizations are wide enough to be applicable to a great variety of literary works of art while, at the same time, they provide means to make meaningful distinctions between, or within, specific works of literature. The approach combines the tools of cognitive science with those of the more traditional disciplines of literary criticism, literary history, linguistics, and aesthetics. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.