Evolution and Popular Narrative
Title | Evolution and Popular Narrative PDF eBook |
Author | |
Publisher | BRILL |
Pages | 311 |
Release | 2019-06-07 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 9004391169 |
Evolution and Popular Narrative argues that an evolutionary approach to popular narrative provides an incisive index into human nature. The contributors explore various media and genres to gauge the interdependency of human nature and culture in our aesthetic appreciation.
On the Origin of Stories
Title | On the Origin of Stories PDF eBook |
Author | Brian Boyd |
Publisher | Harvard University Press |
Pages | 555 |
Release | 2009-05-30 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 0674053591 |
A century and a half after the publication of Origin of Species, evolutionary thinking has expanded beyond the field of biology to include virtually all human-related subjects—anthropology, archeology, psychology, economics, religion, morality, politics, culture, and art. Now a distinguished scholar offers the first comprehensive account of the evolutionary origins of art and storytelling. Brian Boyd explains why we tell stories, how our minds are shaped to understand them, and what difference an evolutionary understanding of human nature makes to stories we love. Art is a specifically human adaptation, Boyd argues. It offers tangible advantages for human survival, and it derives from play, itself an adaptation widespread among more intelligent animals. More particularly, our fondness for storytelling has sharpened social cognition, encouraged cooperation, and fostered creativity. After considering art as adaptation, Boyd examines Homer’s Odyssey and Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hears a Who! demonstrating how an evolutionary lens can offer new understanding and appreciation of specific works. What triggers our emotional engagement with these works? What patterns facilitate our responses? The need to hold an audience’s attention, Boyd underscores, is the fundamental problem facing all storytellers. Enduring artists arrive at solutions that appeal to cognitive universals: an insight out of step with contemporary criticism, which obscures both the individual and universal. Published for the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of Origin of Species, Boyd’s study embraces a Darwinian view of human nature and art, and offers a credo for a new humanism.
Narratives of Human Evolution
Title | Narratives of Human Evolution PDF eBook |
Author | Misia Landau |
Publisher | Yale University Press |
Pages | 222 |
Release | 1993-01-01 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 9780300054316 |
Aims to uncover a hidden level of agreement among theories of human evolution. Analyzing classic texts on evolution by Darwin and Keith as well as relatively recent accounts by Dart, Robinson and Tobias, the book reveals that they have a common narrative form based on the universal hero tale.
Of Literature and Knowledge
Title | Of Literature and Knowledge PDF eBook |
Author | Peter Swirski |
Publisher | Routledge |
Pages | 356 |
Release | 2007-02-12 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 1134104405 |
"Of Literature and Knowledge looks ... like an important advance in this new and very important subject... literature is about to become even more interesting." – Edward O. Wilson, Pellegrino University Professor, Harvard University. Framed by the theory of evolution, this colourful and engaging volume presents a new understanding of the mechanisms by which we transfer information from narrative make-believe to real life. Ranging across game theory and philosophy of science, as well as poetics and aesthetics, Peter Swirski explains how literary fictions perform as a systematic tool of enquiry, driven by thought experiments. Crucially, he argues for a continuum between the cognitive tools employed by scientists, philosophers and scholars or writers of fiction. The result is a provocative study of our talent and propensity for creating imaginary worlds, different from the world we know yet invaluable to our understanding of it. Of Literature and Knowledge is a noteworthy challenge to contemporary critical theory, arguing that by bridging the gap between literature and science we might not only reinvigorate literary studies but, above all, further our understanding of literature.
On the Origin of Stories
Title | On the Origin of Stories PDF eBook |
Author | Brian Boyd |
Publisher | Harvard University Press |
Pages | 555 |
Release | 2010-11-15 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 0674252632 |
A century and a half after the publication of Origin of Species, evolutionary thinking has expanded beyond the field of biology to include virtually all human-related subjects—anthropology, archeology, psychology, economics, religion, morality, politics, culture, and art. Now a distinguished scholar offers the first comprehensive account of the evolutionary origins of art and storytelling. Brian Boyd explains why we tell stories, how our minds are shaped to understand them, and what difference an evolutionary understanding of human nature makes to stories we love. Art is a specifically human adaptation, Boyd argues. It offers tangible advantages for human survival, and it derives from play, itself an adaptation widespread among more intelligent animals. More particularly, our fondness for storytelling has sharpened social cognition, encouraged cooperation, and fostered creativity. After considering art as adaptation, Boyd examines Homer’s Odyssey and Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hears a Who! demonstrating how an evolutionary lens can offer new understanding and appreciation of specific works. What triggers our emotional engagement with these works? What patterns facilitate our responses? The need to hold an audience’s attention, Boyd underscores, is the fundamental problem facing all storytellers. Enduring artists arrive at solutions that appeal to cognitive universals: an insight out of step with contemporary criticism, which obscures both the individual and universal. Published for the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of Origin of Species, Boyd’s study embraces a Darwinian view of human nature and art, and offers a credo for a new humanism.
The Literary Animal
Title | The Literary Animal PDF eBook |
Author | Jonathan Gottschall |
Publisher | Northwestern University Press |
Pages | 332 |
Release | 2005-12-26 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 0810122871 |
The goal of this book is to overcome some of the widespread misunderstandings about the meaning of a Darwinian approach to the human mind generally, and literature specifically.
Useful Fictions
Title | Useful Fictions PDF eBook |
Author | Michael Austin |
Publisher | U of Nebraska Press |
Pages | 193 |
Release | 2011-01-01 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 0803232977 |
"We tell ourselves stories in order to live," Joan Didion observed inThe White Album. Why is this? Michael Austin asks, inUseful Fictions. Why, in particular, are human beings, whose very survival depends on obtaining true information, so drawn to fictional narratives? After all, virtually every human culture reveres some form of storytelling. Might there be an evolutionary reason behind our species' need for stories? Drawing on evolutionary biology, anthropology, narrative theory, cognitive psychology, game theory, and evolutionary aesthetics, Austin develops the concept of a "useful fiction," a simple narrative that serves an adaptive function unrelated to its factual accuracy. In his work we see how these useful fictions play a key role in neutralizing the overwhelming anxiety that humans can experience as their minds gather and process information. Rudimentary narratives constructed for this purpose, Austin suggests, provided a cognitive scaffold that might have become the basis for our well-documented love of fictional stories. Written in clear, jargon-free prose and employing abundant literary examplesfrom the Bible toOne Thousand and One Arabian NightsandDon QuixotetoNo ExitAustin's work offers a new way of understanding the relationship between fiction and evolutionary processesand, perhaps, the very origins of literature.