Literature and Cognitive Science

Abstract

The field of Literature and Cognitive Science is an emergent one. This thesis investigates ways in which knowledge generated about the brain and mind in the field of Literature can complement knowledge generated about the brain and mind in the field of Cognitive Science. The work of a representative selection of literary critics who identify themselves as working within and shaping the field of Literature and Cognitive Science will be examined, and the representation of brain-mind states in two contemporary novels, Haruki Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World and Pat Cadigan's Tea from an Empty Cup, will be closely analysed. A principal aim of this investigation is to affirm the power of literary and literary critical texts as potent and relevant knowledge sources about the brain and mind that must be included in our understanding of cognition. In this respect it will support the position of those in the field of Literature and Cognitive Science who argue that knowledge created in the field of Literature can enrich the new understanding of human cognition being developed in the field of Cognitive Science.