Narrative Theory and the Cognitive Sciences
(Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications, 2003)
Edited by David Herman
Published in October 2003 by the Center for the Study of Language and Information, or CSLI Publications (distributed by the University of Chicago Press). Please click here for a catalog description, pricing information, etc.
Purpose of the Volume
This collection of essays, which consists of contributions composed specifically for the volume, focuses on narrative as a crossroads where cognitive-scientific research in a variety of fields can be synergistically combined, yielding new insights into narrative and suggesting new directions for the cognitive sciences themselves. The fields represented in the volume include cognitive psychology, social psychology, cognitive linguistics, and literary theory, as well as recent hybridizations such as cognitive narratology. Narrative Theory and the Cognitive Sciences is thus designed to have broad, cross-disciplinary appeal, aimed as much at students and scholars in the social sciences as humanists, cultural theorists, and specialists in narrative fiction.
Although understanding long, detailed, and formally sophisticated literary narratives is for many people a natural, seemingly automatic process, from the earliest days of research on Artificial Intelligence, investigators showed that quite complex linguistic and cognitive operations are required to generate or comprehend even the most minimal stories. Meanwhile, from the perspective of Vygotskian and other social-psychological research, processes of narrative communication provide an important test-bed for theories about the sociointeractional roots of intelligence. Further, for psychologists adopting the model outlined by cognitive psychologist Jerome Bruner, narrative is one of the two fundamental styles of thinking enabling human beings to make their way in the world--the other style being "paradigmatic" or logical/classificatory thinking. Weaving together these and other research perspectives, contributions to the volume collectively explore the representations and processes involved in making sense of stories, as well as the many ways in which narrative is itself a primary instrument for sense-making.
CONTENTS
1. David Herman, "Introduction"
Part I: Approaches to Narrative and Cognition
2. Richard Gerrig and Giovanna Egidi, "Cognitive Psychological Foundations of Narrative Experiences"
3. Kitty Klein, "Narrative Construction, Cognitive Processing, and Health"
4. William Frawley, John T. Murray, and Raoul N. Smith, "Semantics and Narrative in Therapeutic Discourse"
3. Kitty Klein, "Narrative Construction, Cognitive Processing, and Health"
4. William Frawley, John T. Murray, and Raoul N. Smith, "Semantics and Narrative in Therapeutic Discourse"
Part II: Narrative as Cognitive Endowment
5. Mark Turner, "Double-scope Stories"
6. H. Porter Abbott, "Unnarratable Knowledge: The Difficulty of Understanding Evolution by Natural Selection"
7. David Herman, "Stories as a Tool for Thinking"
6. H. Porter Abbott, "Unnarratable Knowledge: The Difficulty of Understanding Evolution by Natural Selection"
7. David Herman, "Stories as a Tool for Thinking"
Part III: New Directions in Cognitive Narratology
8. Manfred Jahn, "'Awake! Open your eyes!' The Cognitive Logic of External and Internal Stories"
9. Marie-Laure Ryan, "Cognitive Maps and the Construction of Narrative Space"
10. Monika Fludernik, "Natural Narratology and Cognitive Parameters"
9. Marie-Laure Ryan, "Cognitive Maps and the Construction of Narrative Space"
10. Monika Fludernik, "Natural Narratology and Cognitive Parameters"
Part IV: Fictional Minds
11. Uri Margolin, "Cognitive Science, the Thinking Mind, and Literary Narrative"
12. Catherine Emmott, "Constructing Social Space: Sociocognitive Factors in the Interpretation of Character Relations"
13. Alan Palmer, "The Mind Beyond the Skin"
12. Catherine Emmott, "Constructing Social Space: Sociocognitive Factors in the Interpretation of Character Relations"
13. Alan Palmer, "The Mind Beyond the Skin"
