A Cognitive Approach to John Donne’s Songs and Sonnets

Michael Winkleman is a lecturer in Renaissance English Literature at Bowling Green State University.

Introduction: 'Love Sometimes Would Contemplate, Sometimes Do' 1. 'My Verse, the Strict Map of my Misery': Of Metaphors and Mindscapes 2. The Composing of 'A Jeat Ring sent'; or Donne as Thinker and Imaginator 3. 'A Lecture, Love, in loves philosophy': Donne's Illuminating Anatomizations 4. 'John Donne, Anne Donne, Vn-done'? A Biocultural Reassessment of Their Scandalous Marriage 5. 'Firme substantial love': Donne's Penetrating Observations 6. 'The Very Ecstasy of Love': Prescriptions for Bliss in Irvine Welsh and John Donne 7. Sighs and Tears: Biological Costly Signals and Donne's 'whining Poëtry' 8. 'Verse that drawes Natures workes, from Natures law'; or, Prolegomenon to a Darwinian Defence of Literature Conclusion: Why Cognitive Science Matters Now