Reading, Cognition, and Fiction: Towards a Neurocognitive Definition of Reading Fiction
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3986/pkn.v44.i3.01Keywords:
cognitive literary criticism, neuroscience, literary fiction, reading, simulation theory, aesthetic effect, identification, defamiliarizationAbstract
This article presents the main three traditional theoretical definitions of fiction: the semantic, the syntactic, and the pragmatic. Furthermore, the relations between them and their main drawbacks are explored. In addition to that, the newest neurocognitive approach to fiction is analyzed in light of neurocognitive notions of fictional simulation and the embodied effects of fictional reading. The neurocognitive concept of embodied simulation is considered as a promising tool for distinguishing fictional and factual literary texts—it works through establishing links between bodily sensations of the real-world on one side and cognitive creativity and simulation on the other. Finally, the opportunity of researching and understanding the cognitive and emotional basis of the effects of literary reading (such as immersion, identification, defamiliarization and aesthetic appreciation) is considered as the main advantage of the neurocognitive perspective on literary fiction. Longitudinal studies of cognitive effects of literary reading are recognized as the most potent research subject in the field of cognitive literary studies.
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