Renewing Old English literary studies through cognitive approaches

The developing cognitive approaches to literature outlined above can be applied to Old English texts with results that are significant both in their own right as interpretive responses to the texts, and also in terms of bringing Anglo-Saxonists into emerging conversations between Literary Studies and Cognitive Science. Frequently, the dialogues that are currently occurring at this intersection treat recent or early-modern literary texts at the farthest remove, so are limited in their diachronic scope and cross-cultural potential. By bringing the earliest texts written in English into the discussion, a fuller picture can emerge of how evolved human cognitive abilities and literary capabilities have functioned over a whole literary tradition. In turn, Anglo- Saxon Literary Studies stands to gain from this convergence a wider range of interpretive frameworks and exciting possibilities to entertain into the future.

The consideration of these topics in Literary Studies (though for the most part not by medievalists) has shown how interested scholars have been in Psychology and literature, and therefore how well poised to embrace the emerging and productive dynamic operating between Cognitive Science and Literary Studies. The chapters above have traced some manifestations of that potential as it relates specifically to Anglo-Saxonists. In particular, the pages above have shown how extensively conceptual metaphor and conceptual blending underpin cognitive approaches to Literary Studies, and how prospectively rich and varied these synthetic thought processes could be.