Mind, Brain and Narrative

An examination of the scientific evidence for the mechanisms which underlie the effect a writer's language has on the reader.

Anthony J. Sanford (Author), Catherine Emmott (Author)

9781107017566, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 20 December 2012

335 pages, 7 b/w illus. 3 tables
23.5 x 15.5 x 2.3 cm, 0.62 kg

'In this ingenious book, Sanford and Emmott bring together decades of research in psychology and literature regarding the effect of language on the mind of the reader.' Mark de Kreij, English Text Construction

Narratives enable readers to vividly experience fictional and non-fictional contexts. Writers use a variety of language features to control these experiences: they direct readers in how to construct contexts, how to draw inferences and how to identify the key parts of a story. Writers can skilfully convey physical sensations, prompt emotional states, effect moral responses and even alter the readers' attitudes. Mind, Brain and Narrative examines the psychological and neuroscientific evidence for the mechanisms which underlie narrative comprehension. The authors explore the scientific developments which demonstrate the importance of attention, counterfactuals, depth of processing, perspective and embodiment in these processes. In so doing, this timely, interdisciplinary work provides an integrated account of the research which links psychological mechanisms of language comprehension to humanities work on narrative and style.

List of illustrations
Foreword
Acknowledgements
1. Narrative and the rhetorical processing framework
2. Fundamentals of text processing
3. Multiple levels: counterfactual worlds and figurative language
4. Attention in text: foregrounding and rhetorical focussing
5. Rhetorical focussing and depth of processing
6. The experiential aspect: using embodiment theory
7. Narrative perspective and the representation of speech and thought
8. Hot cognition: emotion, empathy and suspense
9. Narrative's social impact: persuasion and attitude change
10. Final comments
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Bibliography
Author index
Subject index.

Subject Areas: Cognition & cognitive psychology [JMR], Literary studies: general [DSB], Psycholinguistics [CFD]