ABSTRACT
Despite being one of the most successful branches of contemporary narratology, one cannot claim that the basic questions of cognitive narratology – how we understand narratives and what are the roles of narrative structures in human cognition – have nearly been exhaustively answered. Research projects that focus on questions like these have lately started to make more and more use of the findings of natural sciences, especially the neurosciences. This chapter provides an overview of narratological endeavors that I see as early steps toward neuro-narratology, as well as the theories and findings of neuroscience, neurophenomenology, and neuropsychology, which contribute to our knowledge about reading, comprehending, and simulating narratives. Neurologically informed literary criticism has existed for decades, and Ralph Schneider began to theorize neuro-narratology in 2017. This book attempts to further this endeavor by considering the findings and theories of the neuropsychology of memory and perception, neurophenomenology, and neurobiology in narrative cognition. I regard the way Paul B. Armstrong started to approach and incorporate neuroscience in literary theory as exemplary. His is a neurophenomenological account of storytelling and reading, which “offers a model of embodied neuroscience that incorporates brain-based concepts” (Armstrong 2020, 5).
