# Cognitive Phenomenology of Literature **Opening (not a real abstract):** Cognitive phenomenology and the experience of literature Introduction Kivy (2006) put forward an account of the experience of reading literature silently that views it as a kind of performance involving inner speech, that is, the mental sounding of an inner voice that recites the lines of the text. Under this theory, silent reading is considered the mental analogue of reading out loud/reciting a text (e.g., in a theatrical performance). When reading silently, the appreciation of the literary work is thus mediated by the appreciation of one’s performance of it: silent readers appreciate their own inner-speech-based performance of the work, that is, the way in which they make the words sound in their heads while reading (much like the audience appreciates the actors’ performance of a theatrical play).