Toward a Theory of Cognitive Poetics

Cognitive poetics is an interdisciplinary approach to the study of literature employing the tools offered by cognitive science. "Cognitive science" is an umbrella term covering the various disciplines that investigate human information processing: cognitive psychology, psycholinguistics, artificial intelligence and certain branches of linguistics and of the philosophy of science. These explore the psychological processes involved in the acquisition, organization and use of knowledge; in fact, in all information processing activities of the brain, ranging from the analysis of immediate stimuli to the organization of subjective experience. Cognitive poetics explores the possible contributions of cognitive science to poetics: it attempts to find out how poetic language and form, or the critic's decisions, are constrained and shaped by human information processing. It assumes that in the response to poetry, cognitive devices that were initially acquired for survival in man's physical and social environment, are turned to aesthetic ends. It offers cognitive theories that systematically account for the relationship between the structure of literary texts and their perceived effects. This book uses cognitive theories to illuminate literature rather than use works of literature to illustrate cognitive theories. It emphasizes the particular differences between cognitive processes in general and their unique exploitation for literary purposes; its generalizations are wide enough to be applicable to a great variety of literary works of art, while at the same time, it provides means to make meaningful distinctions between, or within, specific works of literature. Such an approach requires the combination of the tools of cognitive science with those of the more traditional disciplines of literary criticism, literary history, linguistics and aesthetics. An important task of cognitive poetics is to explore the possibilities and limitations of such combinations. This book attempts to illuminate the cognitive aspects of poetic structure on a wide variety of strata and from a wide variety of angles: the sound stratum of poetry, the units of meaning stratum and the world stratum; literary history; period style; stylistic typology; genre; archetypal patterns; aesthetic qualities; poetry and altered states of consciousness.

Table of Contents:
General Assumptions. The Nature of Cognitive Poetics. Mental and Vocal Performance in Poetry Reading. Constructing a Stable World. Poetic Structure and Perceived Qualities. The Sound Stratum of Poetry. Rhyme Patterns, Gestalt Theory and Perceptual Forces. Meter and Rhythm. Expressiveness and Musicality of Speech Sounds. The Units-of-Meaning Stratum. Semantic Representation and Information Processing. Literary Synaesthesia. The World Stratum. The Representative Anecdote: Human Contingency. Regulative Concepts. The Versatile Reader: Style as Open Concept. Style as Diagnosis and as Hypothesis Practical Application: The Ballad "Edward". Archetypal Patterns. Poetry of Orientation & Disorientation. Space Perception and Poetry of Orientation. Poetry of Disorientation. The Grotesque as an Aesthetic Mode. Poetry of Altered States of Consciousness. Poetry and Altered States of Consciousness. Obtrusive Rhythms & Emotive Crescendo. The Divergent Passage and Ecstatic Poetry. Critics and Criticism. The Implied Critic's Decision Style. The Critic's Mental Dictionary.