Representation and Immersion. The Embodied Meaning of Literature

The article examines how three types of representation—artistic, mental, and neural—relate to immersion as an altered state of consciousness during literary reading. Immersive reading is defined as an intensification of the embodied experience of literary representation, drawing on neuropsychological studies of embodied cognition. The authors also consider the style of interpretation that immersive reading requires and its ethical and ecological foundations.

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Abstract

This article explores the relations among three forms of representations (artistic, mental, and neural) and immersion, considered as an altered state of consciousness, in the context of literary reading. We first define immersive reading as an intensification of our embodied experience of literary representation, in accordance to neuropsychological studies about embodied cognition. We further consider the style of interpretation demanded by such immersive reading and its ethical and ecological underpinnings.