Literature and the Mindbrain: Neurohermeneutics and the Centrality of Emotions in Reading and Literary Studies

Abstract

Recent research confirms that emotions are not peripheral but central to reading and understanding texts. Philosophical hermeneutics, particularly Gadamer’s concept of Bildung, highlights how emotional and historical pre-understandings shape interpretation as a transformative encounter. This view resonates with recent cognitive and educational studies, emphasising that reading simultaneously fosters critical and emotional growth. A dialogic pedagogy rooted in Bildung thus cultivates readers who are historically conscious, affectively engaged, and critically reflective. Such an integrated approach paves the way for a neurohermeneutic model of literary literacy, where embodiment, simulation, and emotional resonance become crucial to understanding, shaping the concept of understanding in new ways. The essay first traces back the path from Bildung to the research in neurological studies, pedagogy of the arts and critical thought and the recently born neuroaesthetics. The second part centres specifically on Mind the Text! Neurohermeneutics for Suspicious Readers by Renata Gambino and Grazia Pulvirenti, a groundbreaking volume that explores, sums up and enlightens through significant case studies the intersection of literary studies and cognitive neuroscience, in order to restore the connection to hard sciences, and evidence the importance of a literature Bildung. The authors advocate for an embodied and affective approach to reading, proposing literature as a biocultural tool deeply embedded in human cognition and culture. By analysing key theoretical frames—such as embodied simulation, ontological metaphors, Gestalt theory, and enculturation—the book highlights literature’s potential to elicit ethical reflection, empathy, cognitive flexibility, and the central role of emotions about arts and literature. The essay aims not only to trace a path and illustrate Gambino and Pulvirenti’s research but also to insist on the centrality of literary studies in the humanities.