The Concept of Literary Application : Readers' Analogies From Text to Life

Application is the process in which readers of literature focus on elements in a text and compare them with the outside world as they know it – an operation with cognitive and emotional consequences. This book demonstrates how and why this simple yet neglected mechanism is of profound importance for the understanding of literary art and experience. Through the performance of application readers connect the literary text with the world, focusing on elements in the text and comparing them with elements of the external world as they know it, an operation with both cognitive and emotional consequences. Drawing on literary, philosophical, and psychological insights, and also on literary examples and empirical studies of readers, Pettersson demonstrates how and why this simple and comparatively neglected mechanism is of profound and many-sided importance for the understanding of literary art and literary experience. This book contains in-depth discussions of a number of key critical issues, like the cognitive importance of literature; empathy; literature and aesthetics; and such notions as 'text' and 'literature' Front Matter....Pages i-viii The Application of Literature to Life....Pages 1-24 Examples of Application....Pages 25-40 Application and the Act of Reading....Pages 41-60 Literature and Cognitive Enrichment....Pages 61-84 Transportation and Empathy....Pages 85-104 Simulation and Identification....Pages 105-124 The Aesthetic Approach to Literature....Pages 125-144 Conceptions of the Text....Pages 145-162 Literary Practice....Pages 163-185 The Concept of Literature....Pages 186-208 Questions of Norms and Values....Pages 209-226 A Final Look at Application....Pages 227-232 Back Matter....Pages 233-250