'This survey essay aims to map out the rise of the Australian neurohumanities by contextualising at a global and national level what is gradually shaping up as a new direction in Australian literary criticism. This cognitive literary history of Australian criticism begins with a definition and contextualisation of cognitive Australian literary studies and goes on to offer a bird’s eye view of cognitive-inspired fiction and nonfiction. This introductory chapter posits that the cognitive literary studies approach to Australian literature could be construed as a promising way to expand and refresh the field of Australian literary studies while generating interdisciplinarity. By providing a couple of specific examples of ground-breaking neurocognitive readings of Australian novels, the researcher at once challenges the resistance proffered by the curators of traditional fields and paves the way for promising overtures in the humanities.'
Source: Abstract.