Concepts and Applications in Cognitive Literary Studies

Call for Papers

for a special issue of World Literature Studies
Sophia Wege and Roman Mikuláš (Eds.)
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World Literature Studies is a well-established academic periodical for literature studies published by the Slovak Academy of Sciences. This special issue shall explore the diversity of experiences with cognitive approaches to literature, providing insights into the current debate in this field of research. We welcome literary scholars from Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and other central European countries to join our project and contribute ideas on cognitive literary studies. We would like to initiate a discussion on the potential of integrating cognitive scientific research into literary studies.

For about three decades literary scholars in central Europe have turned to research on cognition for new impulses for their own field of work. Nevertheless, the dispute concerning the biological roots of culture is ongoing, and many questions with respect to the neurophysiological anchoring of semantic processes remain unanswered. This special issue of World Literature Studies shall demonstrate how literary scholars with different national and (meta-)theoretical backgrounds conduct cognitive literary studies by applying its basic analytical tools, models and concepts.


Although studies on “literature and cognition” show considerable differences in their methodology, common traits can be identified. These traits depend on the specific function ascribed to the discipline of reference, its explanatory and/or descriptive objectives as well as analytical and interpretative methods. Therefore the most important disciplines of reference are considered in the issue: cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphor theory and cognitive psychology.


Cognitive studies of literature focus their work predominantly on the dynamic interplay between elements of text and cognitive capacities embedded in a specific culture-historical context. Besides, we are interested in potential overlaps with other approaches (constructivism, reception theory, hermeneutics, as well as structuralism, cultural studies, socio-historical approaches or gender studies).


Cognitive literary studies makes specific reference to the basics of human cognition and its manifestations in literary communication and discusses functions of evolved cognitive dispositions evoked in reception. In order to demonstrate the wide range of Cognitive literary studies, text, reader and context as areas of study shall be equally represented. We invite manuscripts that address the biological preconditions of interpretation as well as the relationship of cultural universals and cognitive capacities. Manuscripts with a focus on the “practical application” of cognitive literary theory should explicate the theoretical premises of the cognitive research which they make use of in order to support their arguments.


The aim of the special issue is to provide an overview over a broad range of topics that cognitive literary studies has to offer, while giving scholars a chance to reflect on the role of cognitive processes relevant for the reception of literature from different perspectives. We welcome papers on the following topics:
-Analysis of literature comprehension, for example the obstruction of conceptualization by experimental forms in avant-garde literature etc.
-Inferences, embodiment, theory of mind in the process of reception
- Analysis of fictional presentation of perceptual phenomena (including defamiliarized acts of perception / mental functioning)
-Contributions on questions and merits of cognitive aesthetics; cognitive aesthetics of modern and postmodern, avant-garde literature. Can new perspectives in this field be gained through the lens of cognitive literary studies?
-Relationship between cognitive literary studies and other approaches / literary theories (constructivism, system theory, cultural studies, reception theory, empirical studies of literature, psychology, hermeneutics, gender studies and others)
-Emotion and cognition: in what way do cognitive literary studies benefit from cognitive research on emotion? What is the state of interdisciplinary transfer of knowledge between the disciplines?
-Perspectives on evolutionary aesthetics
-Cognitive patterns and characteristics of genre
-Metaphor: analysis and interpretation from the perspective of cognitive literary studies; poetic effects of metaphor and cognitive explanations; historical perspectives on conceptual metaphor theory; interpretations applying conceptual metaphor theory; theory and practice of conceptual integration / blending theory
-Single areas of research such as narrativity, coherence, relationship of pictures and text, humor, narrative perspective/focalization, reflexivity, multimodality, character, space and others from a cognitive literary perspective
-Cognitive dispositions of authorship / production aesthetics; questions concerning communicative intention in the context of cognitive literary studies
-Cognitive literary history / specific cognitive patterns of literary periods