Showing papers by "Marco Caracciolo published in 2014"

The Experientiality of Narrative: An Enactivist Approach

Abstract: How do readers experience literary narrative? Drawing on narrative theory, cognitive science, and the philosophy of mind, this book offers a principled account of the dynamics underlying readers' responses to narrative Through its interdisciplinary approach, this study combines close readings of literary texts and theoretical discussion in ways that shed light on the deep connection between narrative, literary fiction, and human experience

Introduction: What Is the "Second Generation?"

Abstract: 1. Preliminary MovesWhat does it mean to take a "second-generation" approach to the cognitive study of literature? Since this label can easily lend itself to misunderstandings, we want to make clear that "second-generation" refers to a specific strand in contemporary cognitive science, one foregrounding the embodiment of mental processes and their extension into the world through material artifacts and socio-cultural practices."First-generation" theories in the cognitive sciences conceive of the mind as based on abstract, propositional representations. Like a computer, the first-generation mind would process information as largely independent from specific brains, bodies, and sensory modalities. By contrast, "second-generation" approaches-a term coined by Lakoff and Johnson (Philosophy 77-78)-reject previous models of the mind as unduly limited to information processing, placing mental processes instead on a continuum with bioevolutionary phenomena and cultural practices. We treat "second-generation cognitive science" as interchangeable with another, more technical-sounding label used by cognitive scientists-that of "e-approaches" to cognition (Menary; Hutto). Here the e's stand for theories bringing to the fore the enactive, embedded, embodied, and extended qualities of the mind. To this list we may add "experiential" and "emotional," since this new paradigm gives experience and emotional responses a much more important role in cognition than first-wave, computational cognitivism. Bringing these e-approaches together under a common tag is at some level problematic, as Menary points out (459-461 ), because the theories and methodologies that it encompasses often prove distinct on closer examination. We will have to keep in mind this caveat as we explore the potential of these cognitive models for literary interpretation and theorization. The diversity of the secondgeneration framework is, in itself, a reminder that-again in Menary's words-"our cognitive lives are rich and varied and that simple homogenous explanations do not do justice to the complexity of cognitive phenomena" (461). At the same time, second-generation approaches also show some remarkable continuities: they converge on a view of the human mind as shaped by our evolutionary history, bodily make-up, and sensorimotor possibilities, and as arising out of close dialogue with other minds, in intersubjective interactions and cultural practices.These are the shared tenets of a second-generation account of cognition, and the complexity of the resulting framework is, as we will show, perfectly suited to match the complexity of literary (and, more generally, artistic) practices. Hence, this special issue attempts to map out the continuities among e-approaches and bring them to bear on longstanding narrative, literary, and aesthetic questions. In this process of interdisciplinary bridge-building, the essays touch on all the e's of e-approaches, exploring how perception and mental imagery are enacted through sensorimotor patterns (Kuzmicova; Muller), how creativity is extended through material artifacts (Bernini), how the reading process is shaped by embodied schemata and lived experiences (Caracciolo; Kukkonen; Troscianko), and how characters' fictional minds are in themselves embodied and embedded in socio-cultural contexts (Bernaerts). Though our main focus will be on literature, by including Muller's essay on the embodiment of film viewing we would like to underscore the connections between literary scholarship and the neighboring field of film studies, where cognitive approaches have gained explicit recognition, often by drawing on what we are calling "second-generation" cognitivism here.Contrasting first-generation and second-generation cognitive science does, of course, raise the question of whether a similar split exists, or can be identified, within cognitive approaches to literary narrative. Lakoff and Johnson themselves point out that their distinction "has nothing to do with the age of any individual or when one happened to enter the field The distinction is one of philosophical and methodological assumptions" (Philosophy 78). …

The Storied Lives of Non-Human Narrators

Abstract: The essay examines the phenomenon of non-human storytelling. We take our departure from the paradoxical idea that readers are invited to reflect upon aspects of human life when reading the fictional life stories of non-human narrators, whether they are animals, objects, or indefinable entities. By giving voice to non-human things and animals such as a stuffed squirrel, a lump of coal, or a dog, these narratives may highlight and even challenge our conception of the human. In addition, they may confront us with our propensity to empathize with fictional autobiographical narrators and to narrativize our own lives in particular ways. On the level of meaning, there is a whole range of motifs, themes, and functions with which non-human narration may be associated in particular narratives. On the level of form and effects, however, there are interesting parallels between different non-human narrators. It will become clear that, even though the umbrella term “non-human narration” comprises a great variety of narrators, these character-narrators have something in common as a narrative device.

Beyond Other Minds: Fictional Characters, Mental Simulation, and "Unnatural" Experiences

Abstract: My essay joins the contemporary cognitive-narratological debate on whether readers bring to bear on fictional characters the folk psychology that they apply to real people. While arguing for a continuity in readers’ engagement with real and fictional minds, I point out that some literary techniques harness our imaginative, empathic skills to a greater degree than is likely in real life. Specifically, internally focalized texts encourage readers to simulate characters’ experiences in a first-person way, going beyond our usual second- or third-person stance towards other minds. This can create the illusion that we penetrate more deeply into the mental life of characters than we could ever penetrate into that of real people. In the second part of the essay, I use a short story by Julio Cortazar as case study for arguing that readers’ first-person involvement with characters can also explain the unsettling effect of texts evoking non-ordinary or impossible mental states and experiences. The thrust of this article is that the narratorial function of “authentication” (in Lubomir Doležel’s term) is crucial in creating an empathic bond between readers and characters: since in some situations the narrator’s statements about the mental states of a character cannot be falsified, they are taken to be direct reflections of the character’s experience, thereby inviting readers to adopt an empathic mode of engagement.

Interpretation for the bodies : bridging the gap

Abstract: Introduction Narratologists and literary scholars have often drawn attention to the problematic role of interpretation within cognitive approaches to narrative and literature (see Jackson; Easterlin 20-27; Ryan). How is it possible to reconcile literary interpretation as a specifically cultural form of meaning-making with the generalizing aims and reductionist methods of the cognitive sciences? This discussion on the scientific status of interpretation goes back at least to Wilhelm Dilthey's distinction between "Erklarung" (causal explanation, the goal of scientific investigation) and "Verstehen" (interpretive understanding as practiced in the human sciences; see Gallagher). "Erklarung" attempts to explain phenomena through scientific methods, in terms of their underlying causes, while "Verstehen" makes sense of human agency and cultural practices by referring to their subjective significance. Focusing on the integration of knowledge across disciplinary boundaries, today's theories of "consilience" (Wilson) and "vertical" or "conceptual integration" (Barkow, Cosmides, and Tooby; Slingerland 9-11) have put the relationship between scientific knowledge and interpretation--"Erklarung" and "Verstehen"--back on the agenda of interdisciplinary research. As Wilson himself suggests, "[!Interpretation is the logical channel of consilient explanation between science and the arts" (230). Interpretation is where the divergences between scientific and humanistic methods are at their most evident, thus representing a crucial test bed for any cognitive approach to cultural artifacts. Evolutionary critics such as Joseph Carroll, Brian Boyd, and Jonathan Gottschall have made a step towards a fully consilient literary criticism,2 but as Nancy Easterlin notes their (and especially Carroll's) "strong appeal for scientific study ultimately [points] in the direction of a very different kind of discipline, one that perhaps locates human nature rather than literature as it primary object of study" (18). As Easterlin puts it, restating Dilthey's opposition, there is no obvious way in which the "unimaginable complexity of interpretation" (20; see also Nordlund) can be subjected to scientific procedures of hypothesis testing and validation. My article takes on board the difficulty of closing the gap between literary interpretation and scientific knowledge and responds to this difficulty by sidestepping it: if the gap cannot be closed, it can at least be bridged--or so I will suggest. Rather than attempting to reduce interpretation to scientific methods or even theories, I would like to explore how these two domains of inquiry are or could be related across the gap: literary interpretation may not sit comfortably with the goals or methods of scientific inquiry, but it still addresses, and can interact with, processes that fall under the purview of the hard sciences. Perhaps zooming in on these processes will reveal something about the structures that underlie the sheer diversity and complexity of interpretation. This article proposes that the notion of embodiment--which lies at the core of the second-generation cognitive sciences (Lakoff and Johnson)--can provide a link between hermeneutics and bio-evolutionary and cognitive levels of analysis. Embodiment is an existential condition, our being tied to biologically finite and phenomenologically conscious bodies. As such, embodiment is an object of constant cultural reinterpretation. But human embodiment is also the result of an evolutionary history and fundamentally shapes any psychological process, from emotional responses to higher-order meaning constructions (Anderson; Gibbs). All in all, embodiment provides an integrative framework in which different levels of analysis can coexist and constrain one another while remaining distinct in their respective aims and methodological tools. I call this framework "embodiment spectrum," and I stress that this spectrum is respectful of epistemological divides as well as of what we may regard as the autonomy of interpretation--its value for its own sake, regardless of its compatibility or commensurability with scientific knowledge. …

Punctuating Minds: Non-Verbal Cues for Consciousness Representation in Literary Narrative

Abstract: Abstract This article explores the role of punctuation and typography in readers' engagement with literary narrative, and with fictional characters in particular. I argue that unconventional typography and punctuation marks can be used to convey the phenomenological ``feel'' of characters' (and narrators') experiences, thereby becoming a vehicle for consciousness representation in narrative. Aiming to contribute to the discussion on readers' responses to characters within cognitive narratology, I hypothesize that such responses can be guided by non-verbal cues as well as by the verbal strategies traditionally examined by narrative theorists. I explore two different dimensions of the nexus between punctuation, typography, and consciousness representation: firstly, because of their ``separating'' function graphic markers can render the temporal structuring of consciousness itself; secondly, unconventional graphic cues can exploit the ``evaluative'' function of punctuation and typography in order to convey altered states of consciousness such as dream experience, extreme emotions, and cognitive disorientation.

Two child narrators: Defamiliarization, empathy, and reader-response in Mark Haddon’s The curious incident and Emma Donoghue’s Room

Abstract: Drawing on a corpus of online reviews, my article carries out a qualitative study of readers' responses to the child narrators of two contemporary novels, Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003) and Emma Donoghue's Room (2010). What these narrators have in common is that they are both are affected by developmental disorders: Christopher, the protagonist of The Curious Incident, is on the autistic spectrum, whereas Jack – the five-year-old narrator of Room – was born and brought up in captivity. Through my analysis of the reviews I explore the interplay of defamiliarization and empathy in readers' engagement with these “strange” narrators; I also show how empathetic perspective-taking can work in tandem with sympathy (feeling for a character from an observer position).

"Three smells exist in this world": Literary Fiction and Animal Phenomenology in Italo Svevo's "Argo and His Master"

Abstract: By way of imaginative engagements with animal life, literature seems ideally positioned to address the gap between scientific knowledge and “what it is like” (in Thomas Nagel’s phrase) to be an animal. Yet my article argues that the differences between literary representations of animal experience and scientific methods for studying nonhuman consciousness should not be overlooked. No matter how plausible they are, literature’s animal phenomenologies play by hermeneutic—not scientific—rules. A 1927 short story by Italo Svevo, “Argo and His Master,” helps me interrogate the power as well as the limitations of literary figurations of nonhuman experience.

Unknowable Protagonists and Narrative Delirium in American Psycho and Hotline Miami: A Case Study in Character Engagement Across the Media

Abstract: Empathetic perspective-taking is one of the main psychological mechanisms behind audiences' engagement with narrative (Coplan 2004; Eder 2006). What happens, however, when a story confronts us with a character whose emotions, motivations, and beliefs we fail to understand? This paper examines the phenomenon of "unreadable minds" (Abbott 2008) from a transmedial perspective: how do audiences relate to a character who defies all attempts at making sense of his or her identity despite being the main focus of a narrative? My case studies - the novel American Psycho (1991) by Bret Easton Ellis and the video game Hotline Miami (Dennaton Games 2012) - foreground two such characters: by calling attention to the opaqueness of their protagonists, they heighten the audiences' interest in - and puzzlement at - their identity. In my comparative analysis I explore two dimensions that contribute to audiences' sense of unknowability of the protagonists: the hallucinations and delusions experienced by both characters (an instance of what Bernaerts (2009) calls "narrative delirium"); and their extreme violence, which raises unanswered ethical questions. While bringing out the continuities between American Psycho and Hotline Miami, I also highlight how the interactivity of Hotline Miami makes the central paradox of relating to an unknowable character even more salient for the audience. In this way, I show that the video game medium has reached a level of interpretive complexity that can stand the comparison with literary fiction.

Embodied Cognition and the Grotesque in Calvino's La giornata d'uno scrutatore and Sanguineti's Capriccio italiano

Abstract: In his article "Embodied Cognition and the Grotesque in Calvino's scrutatore and Sanguineti's Capriccio italiano embodied experience and how they can be brought to bear on literary texts. Drawing on cognitive science, he argues that the embodiment of people's engagement with the world emerges from the interaction between the physical structure of the body and socio shows how such nexus of biological make meanings in the representation of grotesque bodies. analyzes Italo Calvino's La giornata d'uno scrutatore Capriccio italiano, wherein distorted bodies play an important > ISSN 1481-4374 Issue 1 (March 2014) Article X Marco Caracciolo, Cognition and the Grotesque in and Sanguineti's Capriccio italiano b.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol16/iss1/X>

Real mysteries : narrative and the unknowable

Abstract: H. Porter Abbott. Real Mysteries: Narrative and the Unknowable. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 2013. 178 pp. ISBN 978-0-8142-1232-5. The word "narrative," it has often been observed, is related to the Sanskrit root for "knowledge." In his latest book, narrative theorist Porter Abbott explores the less charted side of narrative's connection with knowledge: namely, how storytelling, and particularly storytelling of the literary variety, can deal with states of unknowing. Abbott does not limit himself to asking how narrative can represent the unknowable, ineffable, or incomprehensible--arguably, a familiar question in literary studies. Rather, Abbott contends that literary fiction can convey to willing readers states of unknowing which are not a matter of narrative representation, or even interpretive negotiation, but of immediate experience: readers sensitive to certain kinds of textual prompts may become immersed in a "palpable experience of what is unknown" (17). The premises of Abbott's book are intriguing, and the execution is admirably poised between affability of tone and uncompromising scholarly engagement with texts by Samuel Beckett, Toni Morrison, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Tim O'Brien, and others. Here the close readings are integral part of the argument, and Abbott's well-paced textual analyses pull off the feat of conveying the "palpable experience" he is theorizing. Anchoring his contribution in recent debates on theory of mind and empathy within cognitive narrative theory, Abbott draws on a wide array of scientific sources, from cognitive psychology and neuroscience to evolutionary theories. Chapters 1 and 2 tackle questions of selfhood and artistic creativity, showing how literary narrative may confront the reader with the mystery of self-consciousness and the inexpressible wonders of literary inventiveness. Chapters 3 and 4 turn to what Abbott calls the "syntax" of literary language and narrative, exploring the momentary hesitation of parsing a garden-path sentence, or of engaging with texts that invite us to entertain two narrative scenarios at the same time. Abbott looks at the epistemic dizziness that these narrative strategies may engender: it is almost--Abbott suggests--as if such texts worked against the grain of evolved cognitive functions, complicating and problematizing mental operations that have long been streamlined by evolution. Finally, in chapters 5 and 6 Abbott considers permanent ("egregious") gaps in a fictional world, or in the mind of an "unreadable" character, and how such gaps may force readers to acknowledge the intrinsic limitations of their cognitive apparatus. The concluding chapter teases out the ethical implications of literary encounters with the unknown, arguing that literature can function as a "machine to think with" (in I. A. Richards's phrase) and, perhaps, counter absolutisms of all kinds through the epistemological questions it raises. One of the unique strengths of Abbott's book is how, without fanfare, it succeeds in integrating narrative theory, cognitive approaches to literature, and literary interpretation--a feat considered impossible by some of the critics of literary cognitivism (see Jackson). The path Abbott carves through these approaches is elegant and original, and his book is likely to appeal to literary scholars well beyond his "home fields" of narrative theory and cognitive literary studies. In this respect, Real Mysteries has something in common with Rita Felski's Uses of Literature or Joshua Landy's How to Do Things with Fiction--two recent monographs theorizing, from different perspectives, how literary fiction can be employed as a tool for self-exploration and interrogation. Like Landy, Abbott zooms in on a particular set of "formative fictions" (Landy's coinage), demonstrating how these texts may impact readers willing to face the unknown. Both Landy and Abbott emphasize that readers must be predisposed to this experience, for the effects of literature are never inescapable: they are always a matter of hermeneutic circularity, with readers finding in fiction what they expect to find on the basis of their individual interests and sensibilities (in this case, a fascination for the unsolvable mysteries of human existence and selfhood). …