Brain, Mind, and the Narrative Imagination

Professor Christopher Comer, Dr Ashley Taggart (Autoren)

Buch | Hardcover

304 Seiten

2021
Bloomsbury Academic (Verlag)
978-1-350-12780-7 (ISBN)

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Stories can inspire love, anger, fear and nostalgia – but what is going on in our brains when this happens? And how do our minds conjure up worlds and characters from the words we read on the page?

Rapid advances in the scientific understanding of the brain have cast new light on how we engage with literature. This book – collaboratively written by an experienced neuroscientist and literary critic and writer – explores these new insights. Key concepts in neuroscience are first introduced for non-specialists and a range of literary texts by writers such as Ian McEwan, Jim Crace and E.L. Doctorow are read in light of the latest scientific thought on the workings of the mind and brain. Brain, Mind, and the Narrative Imagination demonstrates how literature taps into deep structures of memory and emotion that lie at the heart of our humanity. It will be of interest to readers of all sorts and students from both the humanities and the sciences.

Christopher Comer is Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Montana, USA. Ashley Taggart is Lecturer in the School of English Drama and Film at University College Dublin, Ireland.

List of Figures

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction Back to the Future

PART I: Motivations to Explore Our Storied Mind

Chapter 1 The Scheherazade Syndrome

Chapter 2 Orchestrating the Imagination

PART II: Into the Neural Terrain

Chapter 3 Brain and Behavior

Chapter 4 Deep Substrates of Narrative Imagination

PART III: The Journey from Words to Narratives

Chapter 5 Compelled by Words

Chapter 6 The Cognitive Habitat of Narratives

PART IV: Converging Paths?

Chapter 7 Affective Cognition and Sociality

Chapter 8 The Feeling of What Happened

Chapter 9 Memory, Imagination, Self

Chapter 10 The via dolorosa of the Self

Afterword

References Cited

Index

Erscheinungsdatum	26.02.2021
Zusatzinfo	28 bw illus
Verlagsort	London
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 234 mm
Gewicht	608 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Anglistik / Amerikanistik
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft
	Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Humanbiologie
	Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Zoologie
ISBN-10	1-350-12780-9 / 1350127809
ISBN-13	978-1-350-12780-7 / 9781350127807
Zustand	Neuware