Neurocognitive poetics: methods and models for investigating the neuronal and cognitive-affective bases of literature reception

Abstract

A long tradition of research including classical rhetoric, esthetics and poetics theory, formalism and structuralism, as well as current perspectives in (neuro)cognitive poetics has investigated structural and functional aspects of literature reception. Despite a wealth of literature published in specialized journals like Poetics, however, still little is known about how the brain processes and creates literary and poetic texts. Still, such stimulus material might be suited better than other genres for demonstrating the complexities with which our brain constructs the world in and around us, because it unifies thought and language, music and imagery in a clear, manageable way, most often with play, pleasure, and emotion (Schrott and Jacobs, 2011). In this paper, I discuss methods and models for investigating the neuronal and cognitive-affective bases of literary reading together with pertinent results from studies on poetics, text processing, emotion, or neuroaesthetics, and outline current challenges and future perspectives.

Individual Differences in Sensitivity to Style During Literary Reading: Insights from Eye-Tracking

“…Our findings and our interpretation of them are largely in line with Jacobs' [7,8,57] recently developed Neurocognitive Poetics Model (NCPM) of literary reading. The NCPM is a dual-route model that predicts that foregrounded text elements are processed more slowly than backgrounded elements.…”

“…Being immersed or transported in(to) a story is linked to mental simulation (e.g. [7,8,26,27], and defined as "the state of feeling cognitively, emotionally, and imaginally immersed in a narrative world" ( [28], see also [29,30], see also [6] on disportation). Immersion is associated with enjoyment [31,32], meaning that the more we engage with a story, the more we enjoy it.…”

“…The reader-oriented perspective (e.g., [2]), however, claims that the (perceived) literariness depends on a reader's attention to certain aspects of the text. Interactional approaches emphasize that an author can manipulate text characteristics so that the text fulfills certain necessary conditions of being literary, but the reader also needs to react in a certain way to those manipulations for the literary experience to emerge (e.g., [3][4][5][6][7][8]). …”

La lectura como experiencia. Entre Aristóteles y la neuroestética

“…Si bien las artes visuales acaparan la mayor parte de las investigaciones (Zeki, 1999;Kandel, 2012), las narraciones también han recibido abundante atención y se benefician de las proyecciones procedentes de otras investigaciones cognitivas en general y del arte y las humanidades en particular (por ejemplo, Jacobs, 2015).…”

“…En los relatos referenciales esa valoración se refiere básicamente a la propia facticidad de los acontecimientos que, en la medida en que impliquen al destinatario, suscitarán una respuesta emocional (los acontecimientos, no su representación), pero en los relatos de ficción, al quedar bloqueada esa posibilidad, conservan la atracción del lector en relación con la aplicación de otros sistemas de valores, de otras incitaciones antropológicas (en particular, las relacionadas con el juego y el deseo, vid. Jacobs, 2015).…”