Embodied Simulation and the Aesthetics of Literary Experience: A Biocultural Approach

This essay argues that literary experience is a biocultural and embodied phenomenon, engaging sensorimotor, affective, and intersubjective processes through mechanisms like embodied simulation and compositional memory. Literary language—metaphors, narratives, and polysemy—activates neural circuits linked to perception, action, and emotion, showing that meaning is enacted bodily. Literary immersion reallocates cognitive resources to simulate fictional events, fostering empathy. By integrating neuroscience with cultural analysis, the essay challenges disembodied models of language and promotes an interdisciplinary framework for understanding literature as both a biological and a cultural artifact.