Thinking with Literature: Towards a Cognitive Criticism

Thinking with Literature offers a succinct introduction to a cognitive literary criticsm, broad in scope but focusing on a particular cluster of approaches, some of which (kinesis, relevance theory) have so far been little used. Explanatory chapters and sections alternate with close readings of literary texts from a wide range of different periods and genres. The literary readings are not mere ‘examples’ of cognitive topics, still less of hypotheses in cognitive science: the central argument is that cognitive criticism must draw its primary energies from the complexities of literature itself. The main objective of the book is to induce a change of perspective in the reader: to see the point, and the extreme interest, of adopting a cognitive approach to literary criticism.