Through the performance of application readers connect the literary text with the world, focusing on elements in the text and comparing them with elements of the external world as they know
it, an operation with both cognitive and emotional consequences. Drawing on literary, philosophical, and psychological insights, and also on literary examples and empirical studies of
readers, Pettersson demonstrates how and why this simple and comparatively neglected mechanism is of profound and many-sided importance for the understanding of literary art and literary
experience. This book contains in-depth discussions of a number of key critical issues, like the cognitive importance of literature; empathy; literature and aesthetics; and such notions as
"text" and "literature."
