Cognitive poetics

Cognitive poetics is a fairly recent development in studies of cognition and literature. Tsur attempts to characterise what cognitive poetics is, and how it is similar to, or differs from, other cognitive approaches to literature. By focusing on the ways in which research in the cognitive sciences can contribute to the study of literature, Tsur&s;s approach demands a consideration of literary critical approaches in helping to distinguish artistic expressions from everyday discourse. Whereas cognitive science research in general focuses on features common to all human cognition, cognitive poetics is concerned with what differentiates literary from conventional creativity. The challenge for cognitive poetics is how to incorporate these questions and issues into an aesthetic theory for literature that also links to an overall aesthetic theory of the arts in general.