Cognitive Approach to Literary Criticism (1)

The book “Cognitive Approach to Literary Criticism (1)” written by Leila Sadeghi and published by Logos is significant as it is an original work on literary criticism authored in Iran. Most available books on bookstore shelves are translated theoretical texts. However, Logos has presented a book authored within Iran, which is noteworthy in itself. Leila Sadeghi’s critical approach is cognitive, and initially, this type of approach in literary criticism must be examined. The cognitive approach, through bridging various sciences, has been able to analyze a work focusing on the text, author, and reader, opening new perspectives for analyzing literary texts. This approach bases its criticism on the existential structure of humans, the perception of things in the world, and the way humans experience the world through their body, brain, cells, and neural fibers. This approach connects text, reader, and author through brain studies and reading theories, treating reading as a cognitive function that links the brain and literature. In this volume, Chapter One briefly introduces cognitive poetics and the relationship between the human brain and literature. Chapter Two provides several examples of analysis and critique of texts using the cognitive poetics approach in contemporary and classical literary works.