Description
Book SynopsisThe essays in this volume interpret Jane Austen's fiction through the lens of various sciences of the mind and brain, especially the cluster of disciplines implicated in the term cognitive science, including neuroscience, evolutionary biology, evolutionary and developmental psychology, and others. The field of cognitive literary studies has rapidly developed in the last few decades and achieved the status of an established (if still evolving) critical approach. One of the most popular authors to analyze from this perspective is Jane Austen. As numerous critics have noted, Austen was a keen observer of how the mind operates in its interactions with other minds, both when it functions successfully and when, as often happens, it goes awry, and her perceptions are often in synch with current neuroscientific and psychological research. Despite the widespread recognition of the special congruity between Austen's novels and cognitive science, however, no book has been devoted to this subje
Trade Review
"Thanks to this new volume, cognitive literary studies has progressed one step further."
- Inger S. B. Brodey, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
"Jane Austen and Sciences of the Mind richly reveals the power of cognitive literary studies, its need to embrace evolutionary perspectives, and the mutual benefits of integrating the arts, the humanities, and the sciences."
- Brian Boyd, Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture.
"Jane Austen specialists will, I'm sure, find in this book many insights into the novels and also much to interest them about the current state of cognitive science. Overall, the standard of the writing is high and the chapters by Nelles, Richardson, and Hogan are outstanding."
- Alan Palmer, Review19.org.
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Beth Lau
1. Austen’s Juvenilia and Sciences of the Mind
William Nelles
2. Catherine’s Education in Mindreading in Northanger Abbey
Beth Lau
3. Jane Austen and the Perils of Mental Time Travel
Alan Richardson
4. The Map of Love in Mansfield Park
Wendy S. Jones
5. Austen Agitated: Feeling Emotions in Mixed Media
Kate Singer
6. Pride and Prejudice and Social Identity Theory
Matt Lorenz
7. ’My Fanny’: The Price of Play
Bethany Wong
8. Patterns of Attention and Memory in Jane Austen: Literary Neuroscience, History of Mind, and the Importance of Individual Difference
Natalie M. Phillips et al
9. Persuasion: Lessons in Socio-Cognitive Understanding
Patrick Colm Hogan
10. On Resilience and Jane Austen
Kay Young
