The Introduction to Cognitive Joyce presents the general focus of James Joyce's works on cognitive questions and their exceptionally detailed portrayal of the human mind. It offers a survey of Joyce criticism, starting from the psychological focus of the first reviews up to the latest developments of cognitive literary criticism. In passing, the essay presents a general survey of cognitive criticism according to Alan Richardson's classification, pointing to the parallels between the works of several critics and the contributors' essays in the collection. The Introduction underlines the two-fold structure of the collection: in the first half are to be found general articles pertaining to the whole of Joyce's oeuvre, while essays in the second half present more detailed studies of individual works of fiction.