![]() | Cognitive Style and Perceptual Difference in Browning’s Poetry Subjects: Language & Literature; Language & Linguistics; Literature; Stylistics; Interdisciplinary Literary Studies; Literature by Period; Current work on speech pragmatics and visual thinking calls for a radical reassessment of the problem of obscurity or difficulty in Robert Browning's work. In this innovative study, Bailey reinterpretsnbsp;Browning's life and work in the context of contemporary theories of language and attention, drawn from the cognitive sciences. Specifically, new readings of under-examined historical sources show the extent to which Browning's cognitive and perceptual worlds differed from the norm, aligning him with Victorians like Sir Francis Galton or fellow-artist William Wetmore Story. Exploring how perceptual biases are transformed in the language of the poems,nbsp;Bailey demonstrates how the cognitive sciences can ground a new biographical practice, drawing attention to such matters as the creative process and the ethics of understanding individuals who think differently. In doing so,nbsp;she re-energizes debates about this unusual Victorian poet, his later works, and the nature of literary style. Suzanne Bailey is Associate Professor of English at the University of Trent. |
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