Cognitive Approaches to Early Modern Spanish Literature

Isabel Jaén is Associate Professor of Spanish at Portland State University. She is co-founder and co-coordinator of the Literary Theory, Cognition, and the Brain working group at the Whitney Humanities Center in Yale University and former executive member of the Cognitive Approaches to Literature Division of the MLA (chair in 2011). She is co-editor of Cognitive Literary Studies and has recently published on Cervantes and human development, cognitive approaches to teaching Don Quixote, and empathy and gender activism in Zayas' Amorous and Exemplary Novels, among other topics.Julien J. Simon is Associate Professor of Spanish and French at Indiana University East. He is co-founder of the Literary Theory, Cognition, and the Brain working group at the Whitney Humanities Center in Yale University (2005), former member of the executive committee for the MLA Division on Cognitive Approaches to Literature (chair in 2013), and former steering committee member of the Center for Cognitive Literary Studies at Purdue University. He has recently co-edited Cognitive Literary Studies and the special cluster Cognitive Cervantes of the Bulletin of the Cervantes Society of America.

The book is interesting in that the essays are quite convincing, and rather than raise questions and possible objections, at least in my mind, they open up new avenues, new opportunities for analysis, and new insights. They introduce, orient, and make viable the field of cognitive studies without the obfuscation normally associated with literary theory. They make it seem like a good idea to come on board, and make cognitive studies seem like a viable alternative for the future of literary studies, although it must be admitted that innovation and logical coherence have yet to be shown to be deciding factors in literary fashion.

• IntroductionIsabel Jaén and Julien J. Simon Section I - An Overview of Cognitive Approaches to Early Modern Spanish Literature 1. Contextualizing Cognitive Approaches to Early Modern Spanish LiteratureJulien J. Simon Section II - The Creation of Self2. Embodied Cognition and Autopoiesis in Don Quixote Howard Mancing 3. Why Autopoiesis and Memory Matter to Cervantes, Don Quixote, and the Humanities Catherine Connor-Swietlicki 4. The Janus Hypothesis in Don Quixote: Memory and Imagination in CervantesJulia Domínguez Section III - Embodied Cognition and Performance 5. Cognitive Theatricality: Jongleuresque Imagination on the Early Spanish StageBruce Burningham 6. A Mindful Audience: Embodied Spectatorship in Early Modern Madrid Elizabeth M. Cruz Petersen Section IV - Perceiving and Understanding Others7. Wearing Gender on One's Sleeve: Cross-dressing in Ángela de Azevedo's El muerto disimulado Judith Caballero 8. Don Quixote's Response to Fiction in Maese Pedro's Puppet Show: Madman or Transported Reader?Domingo Ródenas de Moya and José Valenzuela 9. Theory of Mind in Early Modern Spanish Manuals of Courtly Conduct Ryan Schmitz Section V - Feeling and Ethics 10. Embodiment and Empathy in Early Modern Drama: The Case of Cervantes's El trato de Argel Cory A. Reed 11. The Role of Empathy in Reading, Interpreting, and Teaching Las Casas's Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias Barbara Simerka AfterwordTeaching Early Modern Spanish Literature with a Cognitive Approach Isabel Jaén