Beschreibung:
AbstractThe cognitive complexity of Matthew Arnold's poem “The Last Word” has resulted in diverging literary critical evaluations. By applying several cognitive approaches to the poem, I develop a reading that reveals the poem's underlying coherence. I then address the question of how that reading might reflect Arnold's own intentions and motivations in responding to adversaries of his social criticism. In doing so, I hope to present a way of showing how both cognitive approaches to literature and traditional literary expertise complement each other in contributing to our understanding of the complexities of human minding: the integration of sensations, emotions, and conceptual reasoning that constitute the way we experience and interact with each other and the world of which we are a part.