Literary Cognition is a field of study I invented in the Comparative Studies PhD program at Florida Atlantic University. It describes the mental processes by which we read literature. My Dissertation, Foundations of a Scientific Cognitive Theory for Literary Criticism, outlined the framework of Literary Cognition, though somehow I did not discover the descriptive term "Literary Cognition" while I was writing the dissertation.
I am currently writing articles to explore what the study of literary cognition can help us understand about literature. I will update this space as that project develops. Some of the essays on my Other Writing page include nascent insights into what eventually became Literary Cognition.
A paper that serves as an introduction to my approach to literary cognition appeared in the October, 2025 volume of Philosophy and Literature. It's titled "Philosophy of Literary Cognition."