Introduction: How the Novel Found Its Feet
4E Cognition and Eighteenth-Century Fiction March 28, 2019 DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190913045.003.0001 (opens in new tab)
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractThe introduction outlines 4E approaches to cognition—embodied, embedded, extended, and enactive—and explains how they are applied to developments in the eighteenth-century novel. 4E cognition conceptualizes thinking as rooted in the body and its movement, connected to social environments and interactions, involving material artifacts, and dependent on perception through the body. The chapter relates the book's contribution to earlier cognitive literary studies and to materialism and book history in eighteenth-century studies.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key finding | Argues that 4E approaches to cognition illuminate developments in the eighteenth-century novel by emphasizing the role of the body, environment, and material artifacts in thinking. |
Abstract
Abstract The introduction presents an outline of 4E approaches to cognition and sketches how these approaches are brought to bear on developments in the eighteenth-century novel in this book. 4E cognition conceptualises cognition as embodied (as thinking is rooted in our bodies and their movement), embedded (as the mind/body connects to social environments and interactions with others), extended (as cognitive processes involve both the mind/body and material artefacts from the environment), and enactive (as perception depends on the body). The chapter briefly relates the contribution of this book to earlier work on literature from a 4E perspective in cognitive literary studies, as well as to the interest in materialism and book history in eighteenth-century studies.