Who’s afraid of Cognitive Literary Studies?

Cognitive literary studies (CLS) tends to elicit a relatively common set of responses, not so much Frequently Asked Questions as Frequently Hurled Objections. “It can’t help us read novels! It’s anachronistic! (What, did Jane Austen hop in a time machine and read the latest issue of New Scientist?) You didn’t need science for that! Are you trying to turn us into biologists? We can’t trust any results! It’s a one-way street! You’re killing the magic! And hey, why do we need psychology at all?” In response, I offer a new approach to Madame Bovary, and draw on work by Lisa Zunshine and Haiyan Lee, to show that CLS can in fact help us read novels (although it doesn’t have to in order to be interesting). I discuss gendered metaphor in Baudelaire to show that some readings genuinely would not exist were it not for exposure to cognitive science. I demonstrate that literary analyses tend to draw on psychological theories even when we don’t realize it. I point out the inconsistency of accusing CLS, but not other approaches, of anachronism, disenchantment, and excessive generality. I argue that bolstering certain approaches, and ruling out certain others, is actually valuable work, whatever some may believe. (CLS offers not just inspiration but also confirmation and moderation.) I reassure readers that the aim of CLS is not to turn literary studies into a science, where all claims are testable and there is One Correct Answer to every question. I discuss cases where psychologists have things to learn from us, as well as vice versa. I discuss the replication crisis, and show that while it’s serious, it isn’t universal. I explain that artists often intuit their way to ingenuity, in ways we can explain only much later. I acknowledge that there are bad ways to do CLS (“neuromania,” “Darwinitis”), and that CLS makes no pretension to being the only game in town. I get excited about some utterly delightful findings, and hope you will too. And having done all that, I await the next round of hurled objections.