Narrative Theory and the Cognitive Sciences

Description

Research on human intelligence has postulated that studying the structure and use of stories can provide important insight into the roots of self and the nature of thinking. In that spirit, this volume focuses on narrative as a crossroads where cognitive and social psychology, linguistics, literary theory, and the recent hybrid called "cognitive narratology" intersect, suggesting new directions for the cognitive sciences. The ideas contained here demonstrate the importance of narrative as a cognitive style, a genre of discourse, and a resource for literary writing and other forms of communication. Cover Contents Contributors Preface Acknowledgments 1. Introduction I. Approaches to Narrative and Cognition 2. Cognitive Psychological Foundations of Narrative Experiences 3. Narrative Construction, Cognitive Processing, and Health 4. Semantics and Narrative in Therapeutic Discourse II. Narrative as Cognitive Endowment 5. Double-scope Stories 6. Unnarratable Knowledge: The Difficulty of Understanding Evolution by Natural Selection 7. Stories as a Tool for Thinking III. New Directions for Cognitive Narratology 8. 'Awake! Open your eyes!' The Cognitive Logic of External and Internal Stories 9. Cognitive Maps and the Construction of Narrative Space 10. Natural Narratology and Cognitive Parameters IV. Fictional Minds 11. Cognitive Science, the Thinking Mind, and Literary Narrative 12. Constructing Social Space: Sociocognitive Factors in the Interpretation of Character Relations 13. The Mind Beyond the Skin Name Index Subject Index Back Cover