Main Forum:
Literature and the Cognitive Revolution
The main session aims to provide a theoretical basis for the task of
negotiating the role of the cognitive sciences for literary studies. Mark
Turner, whose Reading Minds: The Study of Literature in the Age of Cognitive
Science appeared in 1991, will begin with an overview of the history
and development of the field. Ellen Spolsky, one of the pioneers in the
cognitive study of literature, elaborates on the major theme of the forum:
the historicization of the cognitive approach. Patrick Colm Hogan broadens
the scope further by including a multicultural perspective. Finally, the
noted literary theorist Paul Hernadi considers the possibility of cross-cultural
literary universals.
