The Psychology and Sociology of Literature: In Honor of Elrud Ibsch (Utrecht Publications in General and Comparative Literature)

This collection of essays on literature is in honour of the scholarship and retirement of Elrud Ibsch, a pioneer of the empirical study of literature movement. The chapters present an overview of the results, promises, gaps and needs of the empirical study of literature. Annotation The Psychology and Sociology of Literature is a collection of 25 chapters on literature by some of the leading psychologists, sociologists, and literary scholars in the field of the empirical study of literature. Contributors include Ziva Ben-Porat, Gerry Cupchik, Art Graesser, Rachel Giora, Norbert Groeben, Colin Martindale, David Miall, Willie van Peer, Kees van Rees, Siegfried Schmidt, Hugo Verdaasdonk, and Rolf Zwaan. Topics include literature and the reading process; the role of poetic language, metaphor, and irony; cathartic and Freudian effects; literature and creativity; the career of the literary author; literature and culture; literature and multicultural society, literature and the mass media; literature and the internet; and literature and history. An introduction by the editors situates the empirical study of literature within an academic context. The chapters are all invited and refereed contributions, collected to honor the scholarship and retirement of professor Elrud Ibsch, of the Free University of Amsterdam. Together they represent the state of the art in the empirical study of literature, a movement in literary studies which aims to produce reliable and valid scientific knowledge about literature as a means of verbal communication in its cultural context. Elrud Ibsch was one of the pioneers in Europe to promote this approach to literature some 25 years ago, and this volume takes stock of what has happened since. The Psychology and Sociology of Literature presents an invaluable overview of the results, promises, gaps, and needs of the empirical study of literature. It addresses social scientists as well as scholars in the humanities who are interested in literature as discourse The Empirical Study Of Literature: Psychology, Sociology, And Other Disciplines / Gerard Steen And Dick Schram -- Literary Creativity / Norbert Groeben -- Qualitative Methods In Studying Text Reception / Margrit Schreier -- Agency, Plot, And A Structural Affect Theory Of Literary Story Comprehension / Arthur C. Graesser And Bianca Klettke -- Time In Narrative Comprehension: A Cognitive Perspective / Rolf A. Zwaan, Carol J. Madden And Robert A. Stanfield -- Old Readers: Slow Readers Or Expert Readers? / Katinka Dijkstra -- What We Know About Reading Poetry: Theoretical Positions And Empirical Research / David Ian Hanauer -- A Renaissance Perspective On The Empirical Study Of Literature: An Example From Psychophysiology / Johan F. Hoorn. Edited By Dick Schram, Gerard Steen. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes.