Fictional Minds

Bibliographic Data

ID4375306
AuthorsLars Bernaerts (0000-0001-8211-4551, Ghent University Hospital), Brian Richardson (0000-0001-7613-0707, University of Maryland, College Park)
Year2018
Volume39
Issue3
Pages523-542
Publication date2018-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePoetics Today (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0333-5372 • E-ISSN: 1527-5507
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/03335372-7032732
OpenAlexW2893951642
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited27

In the analysis and interpretation of fictional minds, unnatural and cognitive narratology may seem mutually exclusive. They each highlight different aspects of what narrators and characters think and feel, and their explanatory grounds differ. An unnatural reading unearths the narrative features, such as literal mind reading, that cannot be reduced to real-world possibilities, whereas a cognitive approach may focus on what is analogous to real-world cognition, or it may explain how unusual fiction is made sense of in cognitive terms. This article offers a synthesis in which the contrast between the two is closely examined. Then the article makes a case for a dialectical approach in which readings move from one position to another in order to achieve a more rewarding and encompassing understanding of fictional minds in general and unnatural minds in particular. The argument is developed through a reading of Peter Verhelst’s The Man I Became and through a discussion of the case of mind reading

Cognition · Cognitive science · Dialectic · Epistemology · Fictional universe · Linguistics · Narrative · Narratology · Humor Studies and Applications · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Narrative Theory and Analysis · Philosophy · Psychology

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