CentreForMedicalHumanities.org

Call for Review: ‘The Cognitive Humanities: Embodied Mind in Literature and Culture’ edited by Peter Garratt

posted on

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Consult a qualified healthcare provider before making health decisions based on this content. Centre For Medical Humanities may contain affiliate links — purchases through these links support our editorial work at no extra cost to you.

By CentreForMedicalHumanities.org Research Team | Last verified: September 2026

Research Summary: The Cognitive Humanities: Embodied Mind in Literature and Culture

Category: Academic Book / Cognitive Humanities
Editor: Peter Garratt (2016, Palgrave Macmillan)
Primary Focus: Embodied cognition theories applied to literary and cultural analysis through 4E cognitive science frameworks (embodied, embedded, enactive, extended).
Key Theoretical Framework: Reconceptualizes cognition as embodied action situated in environmental contexts rather than internal mental representation, with applications across historical periods and media forms.
Case Study Domains: Early modern theatre, digital technologies, narrative, art, and performance across diverse historical settings.
Disciplinary Approach: Integrates cognitive literary studies with contemporary cognitive science to explore how understanding the thinking self as contextually embedded opens new directions in humanities scholarship.
Target Audience: Academics and scholars seeking to review the work; interested parties should consult reviewer guidelines and contact reviews editor with qualifications.

We are delighted to offer The Cognitive Humanities: Embodied Mind in Literature and Culture (Garratt, 2016) for review. Further information about the themes under study and the contributing authors can be found at Palgrave Macmillan.

This book identifies the ‘cognitive humanities’ with new approaches to literature and culture that engage with recent theories of the embodied mind in cognitive science. If cognition should be approached less as a matter of internal representation—a Cartesian inner theatre—than as a form of embodied action, how might cultural representation be rethought? What can literature and culture reveal or challenge about embodied minds?

The essays in this book ask what new directions in the humanities open up when the thinking self is understood as a participant in contexts of action, even as extended beyond the skin. Building on cognitive literary studies, but engaging much more extensively with ‘4E’ cognitive science (embodied, embedded, enactive, extended) than previously, the book uses case studies from many different historical settings (such as early modern theatre and digital technologies) and in different media (narrative, art, performance) to explore the embodied mind through culture.

If you would like to review The Cognitive Humanities (no more than 1,000 words in length), then please consult our reviewer’s guidelines and email our reviews editor with a short explanation of why you are well placed to review the book.

Related Articles

FDA Disclaimer: These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.