Picturing Fiction through Embodied Cognition: Drawn Representations and Viewpoint in Literary Texts

The book explores whether language and its structure in literary discourses determine individuals' mental vision through an innovative cross-disciplinary approach using readers' drawings of their mental imagery during reading. It challenges the perceived wisdom in stylistics and proposes that models from embodied cognitive science can help account for anomalies in evidence from readers' drawings, indicating new ways forward for interdisciplinary understandings of individual meaning construction in literary textual interfaces.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 146 pages
Publication date: 29 January 2024
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This comprehensive volume delves into the intriguing question of whether or not language, and its intricate structure within literary discourses, shapes individuals' mental visions. Through an innovative cross-disciplinary approach, the book employs readers' captivating drawings of their mental imagery during the reading process. By engaging in a critical dialogue with the perceived wisdom in stylistics, rooted in Roger Fowlers seminal work on deixis and point of view, the book seeks to test whether this theory can adequately account for the vivid images that readers perceive in their minds' eyes and the ways in which they perceive them.

Drawing upon findings from a comprehensive study encompassing English and Dutch literary texts, participants were invited to read selected fragments and immediately depict the visualizations they had envisioned. Building upon the foundations laid by Fowler and more recent theoretical and empirical language-based studies in the field, Klomberg, Schilhab, and Burke argue that models from embodied cognitive science possess the potential to shed light on anomalies in evidence from readers' drawings, thereby offering fresh avenues for interdisciplinary understanding of the intricate process of individual meaning construction within literary textual interfaces.

This book holds immense appeal to students and scholars engaged in stylistics, cognitive psychology, rhetoric, and philosophy, particularly those who specialize in the realm of embodied cognition. Its insights and methodologies will undoubtedly contribute to advancing our understanding of the intricate interplay between language, cognition, and the subjective experiences of readers.

Weight: 200g
Dimension: 215 x 138 x 11 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032125916