Literature, Cognition and Emotions Literature, Cognition and Emotions group at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Oslo
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Literature shapes our thoughts and feelings. But how do signs on a page have an effect on our minds? And why does fiction sometimes feel more real than the world around us? Members from the Literature, Cognition and Emotions group discuss their research with Karin Kukkonen.
Podcast production: Vera Syrovatskaya. Sound engineer: Joakim Magnus Taraldsen (USIT). Original jingle composition: Jonas Meyer.
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S3 – 6. Thomas Schubert: The Experience of “Being Moved”
In this episode Thomas Schubert, Professor of Social Psychology at University of Oslo talks to Karin Kukkonen about the emotion of "being moved". Learn more about natural and cultural situations of social bonding, and why crying should be considered "normal" as an emotional expression in todays’ society.
Thomas's reading recommendations
Kim Stanley Robinson, The ministry for the future
Abdulrazak Gurnah, Paradise
Rebecca Solnit, Orwell's Roses
Post-production: Bård Ingebrigtsen & Vera Syrovatskaya.
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S3 – 5. Silvio Bär: Ancient Greek Literature and Heroes without Texts
Silvio Bär, Professor of Classics at the University of Oslo, speaks to Karin Kukkonen about Ancient Greek literature and its heroes. Learn how the “epic memory” works, why cognitive dissonance can help us understand ancient texts better, and the major difference between us and the ancient Greeks as an audience for tales about heroes.
Silvio's reading recommendation
Homer's Iliad and The Odyssey (Silvio's favourite translations are by Richmond Lattimore)
Post-production: Bård Ingebrigtsen & Vera Syrovatskaya.
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S3 – 4. Stefka Eriksen: The Old Norse Sagas
In this episode, you can listen to a conversation between Stefka Eriksen, Research Professor at the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research, and Karin Kukkonen about the emotional world of Vikings, Old Norse manuscripts, and international book culture in the 1200–1300s, and how an environmental crisis – the little ice age – may have impacted the (re)production of the sagas.
Stefka's reading recommendation
Njal’s saga, (ed.) Leifur Eiricksson, Robert Cook, trans. Robert Cook. Penguin Books, 2006.
Egil’s Saga, trans. Bernard Scudder, edited with and introduction and notes by Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir, Penguin Books, 2004.
Post-production: Bård Ingebrigtsen & Vera Syrovatskaya.
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S3 – 3. Tone Selboe: The 19th-Century Novel and Situations of Sympathy
In this episode, Karin Kukkonen interviews Tone Selboe, Professor in Comparative Literature at the University of Oslo, about her research on feelings in the "big" 19th-century novels, such as Anna Karenina. They adress so-called 'situations of sympathy', how these novels relate to our socially contingent everyday emotions, how they explore the possibility of sympathy — and in which way the legacy from the 19th-century novel is carried on today.
Tone's reading recommendations
George Eliot, Daniel Deronda (1876)
Ali Smith's Seasonal quartet: Autumn (2016), Winter (2017), Spring (2019), and Summer (2020)
Post-production: Bård Ingebrigtsen & Vera Syrovatskaya.
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S3 – 2. Hugo Lundhaug: The Coptic Apocrypha
Hugo Lundhaug, Professor of Biblical Reception and Early Christian Literature, joins Karin Kukkonen in conversation about Coptic Apocrypha and their relationship with the canonical Bible. Learn more about the way the “Biblical storyworld” has evolved, how cognitive approaches help us navigate the historical distance to late antiquity, and how all of the above is connected to the universe of Harry Potter.
Hugo's reading recommendations
David Herman, Storytelling and the Sciences of Mind
Gilles Fauconnier & Mark Turner, The Way We Think
Marie-Laure Ryan, Possible Worlds, Artificial Intelligence, and Narrative Theory
Mark J. P. Wolf, Building Imaginary Worlds
The Nag Hammadi Library in English, ed. James M. Robinson
More New Testament Apocrypha, ed. Tony Burke
Post-production: Bård Ingebrigtsen & Vera Syrovatskaya.
NB: We apologise for the mismatched level of the tracks in the beginning of this episode. The sound is back to normal after 6.24.
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S3 – 1. Sarah Bro Trasmundi: In Search of an Ideal Reader
The ideal reader is usually presented as someone engrossed in a book, sitting still and not turning their gaze from the page. But how does this image correspond to modern cognitive science, and why do we actually lose the joy of reading?
In this podcast episode, Sarah Bro Trasmundi, LCE researcher and Associate Professor of Cognitive Ethnography at University of Southern Denmark, talks to Karin Kukkonen about the embodied perspective on reading, short attention spans and the necessity of finding new ways of teaching literature.
Sarah's reading recommendation
Lambros Malafouris, How Things Shape the Mind: A Theory of Material Engagement
Post-production: Bård Ingebrigtsen & Vera Syrovatskaya.
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