The Concept of Literary Application Readers' Analogies from Text to Life

by Pettersson, Anders

• ISBN13: 9781137035417
• ISBN10: 1137035412
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-10-16
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

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."

Author Biography

ANDERS PETTERSSON is a professor of Swedish and Comparative Literature in the Department of Culture and Media Studies at Umea University, Sweden

Table of Contents

"In this lucid and insightful book, Anders Pettersson argues that using fiction to understand life ('application') is a deeply important part of literary experience. He goes on to provide a thought-provoking explanation of why and how this is the case. This nuanced theoretical work - one of the best I have read in years - will be of great interest to anyone who cares about the value of literature." - Professor Patrick Hogan, University of Connecticut