A two-day international conference on Cognitive Approaches to Language and Literature, beginning here from March 3 will attempt to give orientation in current studies in the field of Cognitive Sciences.

The conference, to be attended by 300 foreign and Indian delegates, is organised by the Department of English and Foreign Languages of Bharathiar University here.

In this contemporary knowledge era of multidisciplinary approaches to literature and language, which eventually reflects in life, humanistic reading of literature was torn to shreds, with its impact in the later half of the 20th century so much so that defending it has become a matter of acute intellectual embarrassment.

But such reading has stayed alive and its importance is demonstrated by studies in the field of “Cognitive Sciences” and the conference will give the participants orientation in current studies in this field which connects Literature, Cognition and Neuroscience.

It also attempts to open avenues for the study of human mental capacities at work in literary texts, and view this as one of the most direct and illuminating methodologies available to cognitive science.

Internationally acclaimed academicians and scholars in the field of Language and Literature will grace the conference.

Dr. Richard Zumkhawala–Cook from Shippensburg University, USA, Dr. Edwin Zappe, Musisches School of Arts, Austria and Dr. Kandiah Shriganeshan from University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka, Dr. S.P. Dhanavel, Professor of English, Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, Chennai, Dr. Lingaraj Gandhi, Professor of English, University of Mysore, and Dr. Richard Hay, MP, are the main speakers at the conference.