Self-Reflective Fiction and 4E Cognition: An Enactive Approach to Literary Artifice

This book explores the relationship between self-reflective fiction and contemporary cognitive theories,challenging existing models and approaches to literary phenomena. It focuses on the role of artifice in engagement with fictional narratives and provides detailed analyses of both traditional and speculative fictions. The book argues that by combining a literary and theoretical view of artifice with the enactive paradigm of perception and imagination, cognitive literary studies can further sharpen their conceptual and terminological apparatus and generate fruitful hermeneutic circulation around the study of the imagination.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 180 pages
Publication date: 30 December 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This groundbreaking work seamlessly blends the study of self-reflective fiction with contemporary 4E theories of cognition, presenting a compelling challenge to existing cognitive-theoretical models and approaches to literary phenomena. In his insightful exploration, Polvinen posits reflective attention on artifice as an essential component of engaging with fictional narratives, rather than as an external viewpoint that would hinder immersive experiences. The comprehensive analyses included in this text encompass a diverse range of traditionally metafictional works by renowned authors such as John Barth, A.S. Byatt, Dave Eggers, and Ali Smith, as well as speculative fictions by Ted Chiang, China Miéville, Christopher Priest, and Catherynne M. Valente. Each chapter delves into a specific aspect of fictional cognition, encompassing metaphorical representation, spatiality, temporality, and fictionality.

Through this multidisciplinary approach, the book argues that by amalgamating a literary and theoretically intricate view of artifice with the enactive paradigm of perception and imagination, practitioners of cognitive literary studies can further refine their conceptual and terminological apparatus and foster a rich hermeneutic circulation around the study of the imagination in both the sciences and the humanities. This captivating book will captivate students and scholars with an interest in cognitive approaches to literary studies, speculative fiction, metafiction, and narrative studies.

Weight: 286g
Dimension: 228 x 151 x 13 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032263748