Resampling (Narrative) Stream of Consciousness: Mind Wandering, Inner Speech, and Reading as Reversed Introspection
MFS: Modern Fiction Studies December 1, 2022 DOI: 10.1353/mfs.2022.0045 (opens in new tab) via Semantic Scholar
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractModernist literary techniques, particularly those used by James Joyce, can both inform and be informed by contemporary cognitive science. The essay proposes that cognitive models of mind wandering and inner speech—specifically perceptual decoupling and peripheral awareness—help explain the phenomenological experience of consciousness depicted in modernist literature. Conversely, modernist introspective explorations can challenge and refine these cognitive models. The authors also present a model of reading as a form of reversed introspection, where the reader retraces the author's inward journey.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Philosophy |
| Key finding | Proposes that cognitive models of mind wandering and inner speech can help understand modernist literary investigations of consciousness, and that modernist introspection can in turn update cognitive models. |
Abstract
Abstract:This essay promotes the idea that current cognitive models of mind wandering and inner speech can help us better understanding the phenomenological constituents of what Joyce calls “the mystery of the conscious” as simulated by modernist literary investigations. In our essay, we rework a model of perceptual decoupling (how attention disengages from perception) and peripheral awareness (the interplay of focus and periphery in perception). At the same time, we argue that modernist introspective explorations can challenge, correct, and update cognitive models. We also reflect on reading as a process reversing authorial introspective quests (presenting a model of reading as reversed introspection).