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Previous Research
Expanding on five shorter publications, my dissertation (Mental Imagery in the Experience of Literary Narrative: Views from Embodied Cognition, 2013) proposes an analysis of readers’ mental imagery. It is positioned at a confluence of literary theory and the cognitive sciences, particularly the framework of embodied cognition. Questions asked include the following: What are the basic varieties of mental imagery in the reading of literary narrative? By what contents or narrative strategies are they most likely to be prompted? What is it like to experience a mental image of a particular variety? What are its psychophysiological underpinnings? How does a mental image of a particular variety relate to perception? How does it relate to higher-order meaning-making?
Current Recearch
My current research focuses on the mechanisms of readers’ attention and consciousness more generally, across genres and media, and on the role of physical environment in reading. I am also involved in an empirical project investigating possible links between literary reading, emotion, and cognitive ability. The project runs in collaboration with scholars from several other universities in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Norway.
Categories
sociology of literature, literary theory, media studies, narratology