In Trinity Term’s Fiction and Other Minds seminar, cognitive psychologist Professor Joseph Glicksohn of Bar Ilan University, and literary scholar Professor Chanita Goodblatt of Ben Gurion University in the Negev will be presenting their collaborative research on “Gestalt Psychology and Cognitive Literary Studies.”
This talk traces the intellectual history underlying the predominance of Gestalt Psychology for Cognitive Literary studies. The speakers will consider the relationship between the Gestalts of Mind and Text: the poetic text has structure (the Gestalt of the Text), and readers will uncover structure in their respective readings of the text (the Gestalt of the Mind). This tradition also inspires a study of metaphor: a poetic metaphor is conceived as a gestalt appearing within a poetic text, and will have to be comprehended as part of that text. In the process of metaphor comprehension, the reader strives to integrate two unidirectional readings to result in an emergent gestalt—such as that characterized by blending. There is, however, the distinct possibility that an integration of the readings of a metaphor will not be attained, especially if it is an emergent, grotesque hybrid image that would be constructed. The speakers will present the poetic text using a microgenetic technique, namely in a series of segments. As each segment appears, the reader is asked to think aloud. Evidence for bidirectionality in metaphor comprehension should be clearly seen in the verbal protocol. Furthermore, the verbal protocol will reveal to what extent a problem is solved by the reader, such as that of reconciling between the various readings; and most importantly, how grotesque imagery in the poetic text should heighten the tension between the two subjects of a poetic metaphor and thus prevent blending.

For more information, please visit the event page: www.occt.ox.ac.uk/fiction-and-other-minds-seminar