Oxford University Press has just published a new monograph by Marco Bernini. Titled Beckett and the Cognitive Method: Mind, Models, and Exploratory Narratives, the author argues ‘that Samuel Beckett’s narrative work, rather than just expressing or rendering mental states, inaugurates an exploratory use of narrative as an introspective modeling technology’ and that ‘Beckett pioneered a new method of writing to construct (in a mode analogous to scientific inquiry) models for the exploration of core laws, processes, and dynamics in the human mind’. Arguing ‘that literature should be considered a proper exploration of the mind, with its own tools and models for cognitive inquiry’ Bernini ‘integrates frameworks from contemporary narrative theory, cognitive sciences, phenomenology, and philosophy of mind to make a case for Beckett’s modeling practice’.
Marco Bernini is Assistant Professor of Cognitive Literary Studies at Durham University, where he specializes in narrative theory, modernism, and cognitive approaches to literature.
Members of the Samuel Beckett Society can avail of a substantial discount on the purchase price of Beckett and the Cognitive Method: Mind, Models, and Exploratory Narratives by ordering directly here and applying the code AAFLYG6 at checkout.
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