The Routledge Companion to Literature and Cognitive Studies

Introduction
            Jan Alber and Ralf Schneider

Part I: Historical Developments

Cognitive Literary Studies: The History of the Field

01        Narratology and Cognition
            Jan Alber

02        The History of the Field: From Reader-Response Theory to Cognitive Literary Studies
Sven Strasen

03        Neurobiology and Literature
Donald Wehrs

Part II: Core Issues and Debates

Cognitive Narratology

04        “Natural” Narratology and Experientiality
            Maria Mäkela

05        Schema Theory
Catherine Emmott and Mark Alexander

06        Cognition and the Reception of Literary Character
Ralf Schneider

07        Possible Worlds and Cognition
Marie-Laure Ryan

08        The Phenomenon of Narrative Immersion
Federico Pianzola

09        Blending and Literature
Marcus Hartner

10        The Cognitive Processing of Experimental Literature
Lars Bernaerts

11        Interdisciplinary Mind Modeling: Exploratory Cycles in Cognitive Science,
Narrative Theory, and Fictional Creativity
Marco Bernini

Cognitive Linguistics and Literature

12        Stylistics
Peter Stockwell

13        Text World Theory
Sara Whiteley

14        Cognitive Grammar in Literature
Marcello Giovanelli and Chloe Harrison

15        Storyworld Possible Selves
María-Ángeles Martínez

16        Metaphor, Cognition, and Narrative Fiction
            Yanna Popova

Literature and Emotional Impact

17        The Emotional Impact of Literature
Patrick Colm Hogan

18        Neuroscience and Aesthetic Emotions
Paul B. Armstrong

19        Literature and Persuasion
Kobie van Krieken and José Sanders

Part III: New Debates

4E Cognition and Literary Reading

20        What Is 4E Cognition?
Regina E. Fabry

21        Building Blocks for an Embodied Narratology
Marco Caracciolo

22        Literature and Enactive Cognition
Merja Polvinen

23        Situation Models and Embodied Reading
Jessica Jumpertz

Culture and Cognition

24        Cognition and Cultural Studies
Marcus Friedrich and Rüdiger Heinze

25        Narrative, Culture, and Identity
Deborah de Muijnck

26        Practical Suggestions for Using Research on Theory of Mind in Literary
and Cultural Studies
Lisa Zunshine

27        The Phylogenetic Basis of Poetic Behavior
Katja Mellmann

28        Cognition and Culture: The Subversive Potential of Second-Person Narratives
Denise Wong

29        Postcolonial Cognitive (Literary) Studies
Alexandra Effe

30        Cognition and Gender: Handwriting, Multimodal Poetry, and the Upending
of Stereotypes
Torsa Ghosal

Empirical Literary Studies

31        The Empirical Investigation of Cognitive Processes: The Ghost of Scientism
in Empirical Literary Studies
Paul Sopcak

32        Foregrounding: Toward a More Comprehensive Understanding
Frank Hakemulder, Amir Harash, and Giulia Scapin

33        Engaging with Literature in Print, on Screen Displays, and in Audiobooks:
Current Findings and Perspectives for Future Empirical Research
Anne Mangen and Kari Spjeldnæs

34        Empirical Ecocriticism
Wojciech Małecki

35        Absorption and Impact on Self-Concept When Reading Climate Fiction
Christina Loi, Massimo Lusetti, and Moniek M. Kuijpers

36        The Sound of Meaning, and the Meaning of Sound: Phonetic Iconicity in Literature
Willie van Peer and Anna Chesnokova

Biography

Jan Alber is Professor and Chair of New English and American Literature at JLU Giessen University (Germany) and Past President of the International Society for the Study of Narrative (ISSN). He is the author of Narrating the Prison (2007) and Unnatural Narrative: Impossible Worlds in Fiction and Drama (2016). Alber’s articles have been published in journals such as European Journal of English Studies, Journal of Narrative Theory, Literature Compass, Narrative, Poetics Today, Scientific Study of Literature, Storyworlds, and Style. He is the editor (or co-editor) of 13 edited collections, the most recent one being Pandemic Storytelling (with Deborah de Muijnck and Jessica Jumpertz) (2025). Alber is currently working on a UKRI project (funded by AHRC and the German Research Foundation) on post-postmodernist fictions of the digital (PPFDs) with Alice Bell.

Ralf Schneider is Professor and Chair of English Literature at RWTH Aachen University, where he is also Co-Founder and Director of the Aachen Center for Cognitive and Empirical Literary Studies (ACCELS). He has worked and published on various aspects of British literary and cultural history. However, his research focus has been on cognitive approaches to literary reading, in particular the reception of literary characters. A monograph on character constellations and the cognitive and empirical study of literature, to be published with Routledge, is in preparation.