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Article published In:
English Text Construction
Vol. 12:1 (2019) ► pp.29–58

Experimentalism and cognition

A constructivist approach

| University of Neyshabur

This study approaches experimental literary texts from a cognitive perspective. It investigates if a constructivist modeling of cognition can be applied to such texts, and contends that there is a two-way relation between memory and literary experimentations. It suggests a fresh look at literary experimentalism – from the perspective of the cognitive processes involved in challenging (text, language, and world) schemata to varying degrees. There exists a vast body of knowledge on experimental texts, but the study of cognitive processing of such texts has until now been a less studied area of cognitive research.

This study defines two main types of experimental texts based on their closeness to or divergence from the schematic parameters of world, text, and language: proximal and distal. The study shows how distal experimentations are conventionalized over the course of time and call for re-innovation.

Keywords: cognitive, distal, experiment, literature, proximal
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Human memory: A constructivist approach
  • 3.Schema theory
  • 4.Schema theory and literature
  • 5.A constructivist approach to experimental literature
    • 5.1Linguistic cues
    • 5.2Narrative cues
    • 5.3Identity cues
    • 5.4Generic cues
    • 5.5Modal cues
  • 6.Two main cognitive models for experimental texts
    • 6.1Experimentalism: Proximal model
    • 6.2Experimentalism: Distal model
  • 7.The habituation of experimentalism
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Primary data
  • References
Published online: 27 May 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/etc.00017.far
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