Cognitive Criticism of European and American Literary Novels 

Zhongmei Huang 

Taizhou College, Nanjing Normal University, Taizhou, 225300, China 

Abstract: Taking works of European and American literary novel in the traditional sense as the object of study and cognitive critical thought as the basic conceptual framework, the critical thought embodied in 20th century literature is sorted out. This is an attempt of interdisciplinary research. Using literary theory as the ba-sis for critique and argument, it reveals the forward-looking and multifaceted qualities of cognitive thought in literary works, and points out the educational function unique to literature in raising the environmental aware-ness of the public in society, and there is much to continue to focus on as far as the study of cognitive-critical thought in 20th century Western literature is concerned. 

Keywords: European and American literature; Cognitive criticism; Literary phenomena; Marxism; Literary criticism; Modernist literature