Recent developments in cognitive narrative theory have called attention to readers' active
participation in making sense of narrative. However while most psychologically inspired models
address interpreters' subpersonal (i.e. unconscious) responses the experiential level of
their engagement with narrative remains relatively undertheorized. Building on theories of
experience and embodiment within today's second-generation cognitive science and opening a
dialogue with so-called enactivist philosophy this book sets out to explore how narrative
experiences arise from the interaction between textual cues and readers' past experiences.
Caracciolo's study offers a phenomenologically inspired account of narrative spanning a wide
gamut of responses such as the embodied dynamic of imagining a fictional world empathetic
perspective-taking in relating to characters and higher-order evaluations and interpretations.
Only by placing a premium on how such modes of engagement are intertwined in experience
Caracciolo argues can we do justice to narrative's psychological and existential impact on our
lives. These insights are illustrated through close readings of literary texts ranging from
Émile Zola's Germinal to José Saramago's Blindness.
