Cognition and Ideology
Special Session, Modern Language Association Convention
Washington, D.C., 2000
Chair: Anne Williams, University of Georgia, Athens
- "Define Cognition: Be Sure to Distinguish Ontological Problems from both Epistemological Concerns and Feminist-Materialist Accounts of Ideology," Robert Markley, West Virginia University.
- "Presence of Mind: Ideology, Interpellation, and Cognitive Theory," Liz Hart, University of Connecticut, Storrs.
- "Where is the 'Cultural' in Cognitive Cultural Studies?," Lisa Zunshine, University of Kentucky, Lexington.
The recent explosion of interest in cognitive science among literary
critics leaves undertheorized the ways in which cognition engages with
ideology. Even more problematically, cognitive literary studies is often
implicitly perceived as antagonistic to feminist and cultural
materialist approaches to literature and culture. The purpose of our
panel is to demonstrate that the cognitive approach can and does enrich
our inquiry into historically situated ideological formations working
with and not against other contemporary critical paradigms. Because our
panel brings together scholars strongly invested in the possibility of a
dialogue between humanities and sciences and yet approaching such an
interdisciplinary project from very different perspectives, we expect it
to be polemical as well as expository, and theoretically informed as
well as committed to providing specific examples of the "cognitive"
approach to ideology. Our key rationale behind putting this special
session together is the realization that as a developing new field, the
cognitive approach to literature needs to make a connection with other
important theoretical developments within the literary studies, and our
key goal is to articulate the epistemological foundation for such a
connection as well as its challenges.