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About Diegesis In Mind

Diegesis in Mind aims to encourage and support the use of cognitive (‘mind’) science to study ancient narrative (‘diegesis’). We intend to be an intellectual nucleus for continuing scholarly dialogue about methods, standards, prospects, and limitations of using cognitive disciplines to study ancient narrative texts and other media across disciplines. This project is a collaboration between Baylor University and the University of Bonn, supported by the University of Bonn and University of St Andrews Collaboration Grant.

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BLOG POST | 1. September 2023

Monks & Saints: Blended Viewpoint in the Construction of Selves

Eve Sweetser hosts an interview with Historian LIne Cecile Engh and Cognitive Scientist Mark Turner on their research about how vivid physical metaphors in medieval monastic training manuals helped novices to form "blended selves" that shaped their identity as monks and as persons. ...
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BLOG POST | 1. September 2023

Is This the End? A Neurocognitive Approach to End Time Narratives (ETNs)

From ancient to modern times, representations of end time scenarios have not only remained popular, but they have been instrumental in shaping people’s thoughts and actions in many different contexts. But how do End Time Narratives achieve their effects on readers, listeners, or viewers? Melissa Sayyad Bach presupposes that ETNs exercise their immense fascination, and their effects, by triggering certain underlying neurocognitive mechanisms... ...
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BLOG POST | 22. June 2023

Peter Stockwell on Cognitive Poetics (part 4)

In this final instalment of an interview with Peter Stockwell, he discusses the biggest obstacles to interpreting ancient texts, how cognitive poetics an help, and the extent to which we can apply matters of modern psychology to the ancient mind. ...
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BLOG POST | 15. June 2023

Peter Stockwell on Cognitive Poetics (part 3)

In this third instalment of an interview with Peter Stockwell, he discusses the payoff of using a cognitive approach to literature, and what a cognitive approach “do” for us in relation to other approaches. ...
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BLOG POST | 7. June 2023

Peter Stockwell on Cognitive Poetics (part 2)

In this second instalment of the interview with Peter Stockwell, he defines ‘cognitive poetics’ and explains how cognitive science has changed the landscape of inquiry into the study of language and literature. ...
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BLOG POST | 1. June 2023

Peter Stockwell and Cognitive Poetics: Interview, Part 1

June special! This is the first of four weekly instalments of an interview with Peter Stockwell, Professor of English at the University of Nottingham and author of Cognitive Poetics: An Introduction (2d ed.; Routledge, 2019). Here, Peter describes how he began to use of cognitive science to study literature, and simultaneously gives us a window into how cognitive science entered literary studies altogether. ...
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BLOG POST | 29. August 2022

Welcome to Diegesis In Mind

Diegesis in Mind aims to encourage and support the use of cognitive (‘mind’) science to study ancient narrative (‘diegesis’). We intend to be an intellectual nucleus for continuing scholarly dialogue about methods, standards, prospects, and limitations of using cognitive disciplines to study ancient narrative texts and other media across disciplines.
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BLOG POST | 2. May 2023

Cognitive Linguistics and Characterization in Euripides’ Electra

Evert van Emde Boas explains two ways that "cognitive sciences might help us understand what goes on in literary characterization" in Euripides' Electra: "First, they might help us get to grips with how the interpretation of characters actually works, that is, with what goes on in our brains and bodies when we meet characters in literature, drama, or film." And second, these insights "can help us understand issues of literary ...
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BLOG POST | 1. April 2023

How Cognitive Linguistics Unlocks the Secrets of Artistic Expression in the Art of the Middle East (4th c. BCE to 8th c. CE)

We hear from Rina Talgram (Professor of Art History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem) on the benefit of using cognitive linguistics to explore the interactive nature of visual images of the Middle East from the Hellenistic period (4th c. BCE) to the Umayyad period (end of the 8th c. BCE). ...
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BLOG POST | 1. April 2023

Cognitive linguistics and Rabbinic Jewish Literature

Listen to Michal Bar-Asher Siegal (Prof of Rabbinic Judaism at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Diegesis in Mind board member) discuss how cognitive linguistics helps her to read rabbinic literature. ...
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BLOG POST | 1. April 2023

Recap of Characters in Mind Conference

Missed the conference? Here's the recap of Characters in Mind: The Migration of Characters in Ancient Jewish, Ancient Christian & Greco-Roman Literature and Art, an International and Interdisciplinary Conference at the University of Bonn, 8-10 February 2023 ...
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