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Literary studies are at a tipping point. ." There is broad agreement that the discipline is in "crisis"--that it is aimless, that its intellectual energy is spent, that all of the trends are bad, and that fundamental change will be required to set things right. But there is little agreement on what those changes should be, and no one can predict which way things will ultimately tip. Literature, Science, and a New Humanities represents a bold new response to the crisis in academic literary studies. This book presents a total challenge to dominant paradigms of literary analysis and offers a sweeping critique of those paradigms, and sketches outlines of a new paradigm inspired by scientific theories, methods, and attitudes.
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LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND A NEW HUMANITIES
Cognitive Studies in Literature and Performance Literature, Science, and a New Humanities Jonathan Gottschall
Literature, Science, and a New Humanities
Jonathan Gottschall
LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND A NEW HUMANITIES
Copyright © Jonathan Gottschall, 2008. All rights reserved. First published in 2008 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the US—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN-13: 978–0–230–60903–7 paperback ISBN-10: 0–230–60903–1 paperback ISBN-13: 978–0–230–60901–3 hardcover ISBN-10: 0–230–60901–5 hardcover Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gottschall, Jonathan. Literature, science, and a new humanities / Jonathan Gottschall. p. cm.—(Cognitive studies in literature and performance) ISBN 0–230–60901–5—0–230–60903–1 1. Literature and science. 2. Literature—Study and teaching (Higher) 3. Literature—History and criticism—Theory, etc. I. Title. PN55.G68 2008 8019.95—dc22
2008007261
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: October 2008 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America.
To Tiffani, Abigail, Annabel and to Jon, Marcia, Deidre, Richard, Robert, David
I’m sufficiently liberal, I should assume, toward the claims of science, but with a man like Gottlieb—I’m prepared to believe that he knows all about material forces, but what astounds me is that such a man can be blind to the vital force that creates all the others. He says that knowledge is worthless unless it is proven by rows of figures. Well, when one of you scientific sharks can take the genius of a Ben Jonson and measure it with a yardstick, then I’ll admit we literary chaps, with our doubtless absurd belief in beauty, loyalty and the world o’ dreams, are off on the wrong track! (English Professor Dr. Brumfit describing the bacteriologist, Dr. Gottleib, in Sinclair Lewis’s Arrowsmith)
Contents
List of Tables
ix
Preface
xi xiii
Acknowledgments Introduction: Shrinking Possibility Space
Part I
1
On Theory, Method, and Attitude
1 On Theory
17
2
On Method
43
3
On Attitude
67
Part II
Case Studies at the Nexus of Literature and Evolutionary Science
Introduction to Part II
89
4 The Heroine with a Thousand Faces: Universal Trends in the Characterization of Female Folktale Protago