Poetics-Cognitive Science Colloquy 2005

Keynote Speakers: John Ashbery, Angus Fletcher, Walter J. Freeman, and Steven Pinker

Theme

Among the disciplines informing cognitive poetics, neuroscience has been undersung and underutilized, a trend that seems to suggest imminent remedy. Indeed, the recent experimental and theoretical advances offered by neuroscience question the traditional judgment that literary knowledge is incompatible with scientific knowledge. What insights might detailed attention to the neuronal activity of the brain lend to the creative process? Might this directionality be reversed, that is, might the complex structures interrogated by poetics yield a formal understanding that could, in turn, shed light on neuroscientific problems?

This conference will be a small, select gathering of scholars interested in probing these questions, collaborating on research, and reporting relevant findings in their respective fields. Participants include: literary theorists, neuroscientists, writers, artists, cognitive scientists of various disciplines, e.g., linguistics, physical psychology, social psychology, and the philosophy of mind.

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