The Psychology and Sociology of Literature is a collection of 25 chapters on literature by some of the leading psychologists, sociologists, and literary scholars in the field of the empirical study of literature. Contributors include Ziva Ben-Porat, Gerry Cupchik, Art Graesser, Rachel Giora, Norbert Groeben, Colin Martindale, David Miall, Willie van Peer, Kees van Rees, Siegfried Schmidt, Hugo Verdaasdonk, and Rolf Zwaan. Topics include literature and the reading process; the role of poetic language, metaphor, and irony; cathartic and Freudian effects; literature and creativity; the career of the literary author; literature and culture; literature and multicultural society, literature and the mass media; literature and the internet; and literature and history. An introduction by the editors situates the empirical study of literature within an academic context. The chapters are all invited and refereed contributions, collected to honor the scholarship and retirement of professor Elrud Ibsch, of the Free University of Amsterdam. Together they represent the state of the art in the empirical study of literature, a movement in literary studies which aims to produce reliable and valid scientific knowledge about literature as a means of verbal communication in its cultural context. Elrud Ibsch was one of the pioneers in Europe to promote this approach to literature some 25 years ago, and this volume takes stock of what has happened since. The Psychology and Sociology of Literature presents an invaluable overview of the results, promises, gaps, and needs of the empirical study of literature. It addresses social scientists as well as scholars in the humanities who are interested in literature as discourse.

Table of Contents:
1. Preface; 2. The empirical study of literature: Psychology, sociology, and other disciplines (by Steen, Gerard J.); 3. Literary creativity (by Groeben, Norbert); 4. Qualitative methods in studying text reception (by Schreier, Margrit); 5. Agency, plot, and a structural affect theory of literary story comprehension (by Graesser, Arthur C.); 6. Time in narrative comprehension: A cognitive perspective (by Zwaan, Rolf A.); 7. Old readers: Slow readers or expert readers? (by Dijkstra, Katinka); 8. What we know about reading poetry: Theoretical positions and empirical research (by Hanauer, David I.); 9. A renaissance perspective on the empirical study of literature: An example from psychophysiology (by Hoorn, Johan F.); 10. A rhetoric of metaphor: Conceptual and linguistic metaphor and the psychology of literature (by Steen, Gerard J.); 11. Irony and its discontent (by Giora, Rachel); 12. Psychoanalysts and daydreaming (by Peer, Willie van); 13. Back from the grave: Reinstating the catharsis concept in the psychology of reception (by Scheele, Brigitte); 14. How to make alle Menschen Bruder: Literature in a multicultural and multiform society (by Hakemulder, Frank); 15. "Sad autumn" and cultural representations: A comparative study of Japanese and Israeli "autumn" (by Ben-Porat, Ziva); 16. The fragmentation of the media audience (by Rees, Kees van); 17. Bypassing the author: Two examples of reading interactive stories (by Tan, Ed); 18. Readers and reading behavior in the past: The question is: What is the question? (by Kloek, Joost J.); 19. The empirical study of careers in literature and the arts (by Janssen, Susanne); 20. Stories and social structure: A structural perspective on literature in society (by Nooy, Wouter de); 21. Quotations expressing the valuative stands of literary reviewers (by Verdaasdonk, Hugo); 22. The proper place of humanism: Qualitative versus scientific studies of literature (by Martindale, Colin); 23. An evolutionary framework for literary reading (by Miall, David S.); 24. High and popular culture from the viewpoints of psychology and cultural studies (by Cupchik, Gerald C.); 25. Operative fictions: The fabric of societies (by Schmidt, Siegfried J.); 26. List of contributors