Cognitive Studies of Anglo-Saxon Mentalities

The new ways of thinking about literature offered by Cognitive Literary Studies and Cognitive Poetics offer detailed means of understanding pre-modern mentalities and fresh perspectives on the literary products of remote cultures. When applied to Anglo-Saxon literature, these methodologies, which bring cognitive science and linguistics to bear on literary studies, focus on the psychology of interpretation and seek to discover the mental causes of the rhetorical effects in literature. They base literary study on an understanding of mental processing, and inform analyses of literary structures with knowledge of mental schemas. A better understanding of the landscape and significance of literary mentalities can only enhance our grasp on both the artistry and logistics of literary meaning.