The Secret Life of Literature

An innovative account that brings together cognitive science, ethnography, and literary history to examine patterns of “mindreading” in a wide range of literary works. For over four thousand years, writers have been experimenting with what cognitive scientists call “mindreading”: constantly devising...

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Autor principal: Zunshine, Lisa
Formato: Online
Lenguaje:inglés
Publicado: The MIT Press 2022
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Acceso en línea:ONIX_20220429_9780262367653_2
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author Zunshine, Lisa
author_browse Zunshine, Lisa
author_facet Zunshine, Lisa
author_sort Zunshine, Lisa
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description An innovative account that brings together cognitive science, ethnography, and literary history to examine patterns of “mindreading” in a wide range of literary works. For over four thousand years, writers have been experimenting with what cognitive scientists call “mindreading”: constantly devising new social contexts for making their audiences imagine complex mental states of characters and narrators. In The Secret Life of Literature, Lisa Zunshine uncovers these mindreading patterns, which have, until now, remained invisible to both readers and critics, in works ranging from The Epic of Gilgamesh to Invisible Man. Bringing together cognitive science, ethnography, and literary studies, this engaging book transforms our understanding of literary history. Central to Zunshine's argument is the exploration of mental states “embedded” within each other, as, for instance, when Ellison's Invisible Man is aware of how his white Communist Party comrades pretend not to understand what he means, when they want to reassert their position of power. Paying special attention to how race, class, and gender inform literary embedments, Zunshine contrasts this dynamic with real-life patterns studied by cognitive and social psychologists. She also considers community-specific mindreading values and looks at the rise and migration of embedment patterns across genres and national literary traditions, noting particularly the use of deception, eavesdropping, and shame as plot devices. Finally, she investigates mindreading in children's literature. Stories for children geared toward different stages of development, she shows, provide cultural scaffolding for initiating young readers into a long-term engagement with the secret life of literature.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-809202024-03-28T10:53:48Z The Secret Life of Literature Zunshine, Lisa cognition theory of mind novel cognition and literature fiction: social aspects mindreading and social status Bakhtin opacity model children's literature creative writing. thema EDItEUR::G Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary subjects::GT Interdisciplinary studies::GTK Cognitive studies thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics::CF Linguistics::CFM Lexicography thema EDItEUR::F Fiction and Related items::FZ Fiction companions An innovative account that brings together cognitive science, ethnography, and literary history to examine patterns of “mindreading” in a wide range of literary works. For over four thousand years, writers have been experimenting with what cognitive scientists call “mindreading”: constantly devising new social contexts for making their audiences imagine complex mental states of characters and narrators. In The Secret Life of Literature, Lisa Zunshine uncovers these mindreading patterns, which have, until now, remained invisible to both readers and critics, in works ranging from The Epic of Gilgamesh to Invisible Man. Bringing together cognitive science, ethnography, and literary studies, this engaging book transforms our understanding of literary history. Central to Zunshine's argument is the exploration of mental states “embedded” within each other, as, for instance, when Ellison's Invisible Man is aware of how his white Communist Party comrades pretend not to understand what he means, when they want to reassert their position of power. Paying special attention to how race, class, and gender inform literary embedments, Zunshine contrasts this dynamic with real-life patterns studied by cognitive and social psychologists. She also considers community-specific mindreading values and looks at the rise and migration of embedment patterns across genres and national literary traditions, noting particularly the use of deception, eavesdropping, and shame as plot devices. Finally, she investigates mindreading in children's literature. Stories for children geared toward different stages of development, she shows, provide cultural scaffolding for initiating young readers into a long-term engagement with the secret life of literature. 2022-04-29T14:13:44Z 2022-04-29T14:13:44Z 2022 book ONIX_20220429_9780262367653_2 9780262367653 9780262046336 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/80920 eng The MIT Press application/octet-stream Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/13964.001.0001 The MIT Press The MIT Press 10.7551/mitpress/13964.001.0001 10.7551/mitpress/13964.001.0001 ae0cf962-f685-4933-93d1-916defa5123d 9780262367653 9780262046336 The MIT Press 336 Cambridge open access
spellingShingle cognition
theory of mind
novel
cognition and literature
fiction: social aspects
mindreading and social status
Bakhtin
opacity model
children's literature
creative writing.
thema EDItEUR::G Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary subjects::GT Interdisciplinary studies::GTK Cognitive studies
thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics::CF Linguistics::CFM Lexicography
thema EDItEUR::F Fiction and Related items::FZ Fiction companions
Zunshine, Lisa
The Secret Life of Literature
title The Secret Life of Literature
title_full The Secret Life of Literature
title_fullStr The Secret Life of Literature
title_full_unstemmed The Secret Life of Literature
title_short The Secret Life of Literature
title_sort secret life of literature
topic cognition
theory of mind
novel
cognition and literature
fiction: social aspects
mindreading and social status
Bakhtin
opacity model
children's literature
creative writing.
thema EDItEUR::G Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary subjects::GT Interdisciplinary studies::GTK Cognitive studies
thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics::CF Linguistics::CFM Lexicography
thema EDItEUR::F Fiction and Related items::FZ Fiction companions
topic_facet cognition
theory of mind
novel
cognition and literature
fiction: social aspects
mindreading and social status
Bakhtin
opacity model
children's literature
creative writing.
thema EDItEUR::G Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary subjects::GT Interdisciplinary studies::GTK Cognitive studies
thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics::CF Linguistics::CFM Lexicography
thema EDItEUR::F Fiction and Related items::FZ Fiction companions
url ONIX_20220429_9780262367653_2
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