Motion and Emotion：The Application of Sensory-Motor Concepts to the Representation of Emotion in Literature

Foreign Literature Studies ›› 2019, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (3): 153-166.

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Motion and Emotion：The Application of Sensory-Motor Concepts to the Representation of Emotion in Literature

Wolfgang G. Müller, Zhang Junping

Published:2022-05-23
About author:Wolfgang G. Müller is a professor of English Literature, Emeritus, at the Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena（Wiesbaden 65199,Germany）. His research areas are Shakespeare and English literature in the Renaissance, English balladry, narratology, cognitive science and literature, etc. Email: womu@gmx.de; Translators: Zhang Junping is an associate professor of English at the School of Foreign Studies, Jiangnan University(Wuxi 214000, China). Her research areas are English and American literature,comparative literature and Western literary theories. Email: jndxzjp@163.com.
Supported by:
“New Perspectives in Studies of the 20th century's American Novels”(JUSRP1910ZD) sponsored by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities

Abstract

Abstract: This article attempts to relate to literature insights on the role of sensory and motor processes as essential constituents of cognition. It concentrates on the representation of emotion. The starting-point of the investigation is the fact that the representation of emotion in literature is-analogous to emotion in actual life-essentially constituted by motion and other physical or physiological manifestations. The investigation is supported by cognitive research and by neuroscientic research concerning the interdependence of emotion and motion. Evidence is adduced that emotional experiences are in a great quantity of literary texts represented as cognitive experiences with a strong participation of kinesthetic activities of the body.

Key words: embodied cognition, emotion, motion, facial feedback, body metaphors

Wolfgang G. Müller, Zhang Junping. Motion and Emotion：The Application of Sensory-Motor Concepts to the Representation of Emotion in Literature[J]. Foreign Literature Studies, 2019, 41(3): 153-166.

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Motion and Emotion：The Application of Sensory-Motor Concepts to the Representation of Emotion in Literature

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