Neurocognitive Interpretations of Australian Literature

Jean-François Vernay is the author of five scholarly books, most of which are available in translation or are currently being translated: Water from the Moon: Illusion and Reality in the Works of Australian Novelist Christopher Koch (2007), A Brief Take on the Australian Novel (2016), The Seduction of Fiction: A Plea for Putting Emotions Back into Literary Interpretation (2016), and: La séduction de la fiction (2019). He has also edited several special issues of international academic journals and his 30 odd peer-reviewed articles and chapters have appeared in many countries around the world. His latest monograph, The Rise of the Australian Neurohumanities: Conversations Between Neurocognitive Research and Australian Literature, is an edited volume also available in the Routledge Focus series.

Foreword by Tony Hughes-d’Aeth

INTRODUCTION: GOING THE EXTRA SCHOLARLY MILE

PART I: COGNITION AND LITERARY CULTURE

1 Up for a Cha(lle)nge? A Case for Cognitive Australian Literary Studies

2 Do Judge a Book by Its Cover! Attraction and Attachment in Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief

PART II: COGNITION AND THE MIND

3 Gazing Inward and Outward: (Trans)Formation in C.J.Koch’s Bildungsroman Protagonist and Readers

4 Australian High-Functioning ASD Fiction in the Age of Neurodiversity: Graeme Simsion’s Rosie Trilogy

PART III: COGNITION AND THE BODY

5 The Erotics of Writing and Reading Australian Novels: Linda Jaivin, Frank Moorhouse and John Purcell’s Art of Dealing with Dirt

6 Brains in Pain and Coping Bodies: Trauma, Scars, Wounds, and the Mind-Body Relationship in Western Australia Aboriginal Literature

PART IV: COGNITION AND EMOTIONS

7 Angry Gay Men: Rage, Race and Reward in Contemporary Australian Advocacy Fiction

8 No Time for Outrage? The Demidenko Affair: Literary Representations, Criticism and Moral Emotions in The Hand That Signed the Paper