Theory of Mind and Literature

Description

Theory of Mind is what enables us to "put ourselves in another's shoes." It is mindreading, empathy, creative imagination of another's perspective: in short, it is simultaneously a highly sophisticated ability and a very basic necessity for human communication. Theory of Mind is central to such commercial endeavors as market research and product development, but it is also just as important in maintaining human relations over a cup of coffee. Not surprisingly, it is a critical tool in reading and understanding literature, which abounds with characters, situations, and "other people's shoes." Furthermore, it is becoming increasingly apparent that reading literature also hones these critical mindreading skills. Theory of Mind and Literature is a collection of nineteen essays by prominent scholars (linguists, cognitive scientists, and philosophers) working in the cutting-edge field of cognitive literary studies, which explores how we use Theory of Mind in reading and understanding literature.
Acknowledgments

Introduction

1: Theory of Mind Now and Then: Evolutionary and Historical Perspectives

Theory of Mind and Theory of Minds in Literature, by Keith Oatley

Social Minds in Little Dorrit, by Alan Palmer

The Way We Imagine, by Mark Turner

Theory of Mind and Fictions of Embodied Transparency, by Lisa Zunshine

2: Mind Reading and Literary Characterization

Theory of the Murderous Mind: Understanding the Emotional Intensity of John Doyle’s Interpretation of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, by Diana Calderazzo

Distraction as Liveliness of Mind: A Cognitive Approach to Characterization in Jane Austen, by Natalie Phillips

Sancho Panza’s Theory of Mind, by Howard Mancing

Is Perceval Autistic?: Theory of Mind in the Conte del Graal, by Paula Leverage

3: Theory of Mind and Literary / Linguistic Structure

Whose Mind’s Eye? Free Indirect Discourse and the Covert Narrator in Marlene Streeruwitz’s Nachwelt, by Jennifer Marston William

Attractors, Trajectors, and Agents in Racine’s “Récit de Théramène”, by Allen G. Wood

The Importance of Deixis and Attributive Style for the Study of Theory of Mind: The Example of William Faulkner’s Disturbed Characters, by Ineke Bockting

4: Alternate States of Mind

Alternative Theory of Mind for Artificial Brains: A Logical Approach to Interpreting Alien Minds, by Orley K. Marron

Reading Phantom Minds: Marie Darrieussecq’s Naissance des fantômes and Ghosts’ Body Language, by Mikko Keskinen

Theory of Mind and Metamorphoses in Dreams: Jekyll & Hyde and The Metamorphosis, by Richard Schweickert and Zhuangzhuang Xi

Mother/Daughter Mind Reading and Ghostly Intervention in Toni Morrison’s Beloved, by Klarina Priborkin

5: Theoretical, Philosophical, Political Approaches

Changing Minds: Theory of Mind and Propaganda in Egon Erwin Kisch’s Asien gründlich verändert, by

Seth Knox

Functional Brain Imaging and the Problem of Other Minds, by Dan Lloyd, Vince Calhoun, Godfrey Pearlson, and Robert Astur

How is it Possible to Have Empathy? Four Models, by Fritz Breithaupt

Theory of Mind and the Conscience in El casamiento engañoso, by José Barroso Castro

Contributors

Index

Sujets

• Literary Criticism
• Literary theory
• Theory
• Semiotics

Informations

• Publié par: Purdue University Press
• Date de parution: 15 janvier 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781612492001
• Langue: English

Extrait

T HEORY OF M IND AND L ITERATURE
T HEORY OF M IND AND L ITERATURE
EDITED BY
P AULA L EVERAGE , H OWARD M ANCING , R ICHARD S CHWEICKERT, AND J ENNIFER M ARSTON W ILLIAM
Purdue University Press West Lafayette, Indiana
Copyright 2011 by Purdue University. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Theory of mind and literature / edited by Paula Leverage ... [et al.].
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-55753-570-2
1. Literature--History and criticism--Theory, etc. 2. Philosophy of mind in literature. I. Leverage, Paula, 1970-
PN441.T45 2010
801 .92--dc22
2010009895
To our loving families.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1: Theory of Mind Now and Then: Evolutionary and Historical Perspectives
Theory of Mind and Theory of Minds in Literature Keith Oatley
Social Minds in Little Dorrit Alan Palmer
The Way We Imagine Mark Turner
Theory of Mind and Fictions of Embodied Transparency Lisa Zunshine
2: Mind Reading and Literary Characterization
Theory of the Murderous Mind: Understanding the Emotional Intensity of John Doyle s Interpretation of Sondheim s Sweeney Todd Diana Calderazzo
Distraction as Liveliness of Mind: A Cognitive Approach to Characterization in Jane Austen Natalie Phillips
Sancho Panza s Theory of Mind Howard Mancing
Is Perceval Autistic?: Theory of Mind in the Conte del Graal Paula Leverage
3: Theory of Mind and Literary / Linguistic Structure
Whose Mind s Eye? Free Indirect Discourse and the Covert Narrator in Marlene Streeruwitz s Nachwelt Jennifer Marston William
Attractors, Trajectors, and Agents in Racine s R cit de Th ram ne Allen G. Wood
The Importance of Deixis and Attributive Style for the Study of Theory of Mind: The Example of William Faulkner s Disturbed Characters Ineke Bockting
4: Alternate States of Mind
Alternative Theory of Mind for Artificial Brains: A Logical Approach to Interpreting Alien Minds Orley K. Marron
Reading Phantom Minds: Marie Darrieussecq s Naissance des fant mes and Ghosts Body Language Mikko Keskinen
Theory of Mind and Metamorphoses in Dreams: Jekyll Hyde , and The Metamorphosis Richard Schweickert and Zhuangzhuang Xi
Mother/Daughter Mind Reading and Ghostly Intervention in Toni Morrison s Beloved Klarina Priborkin
5: Theoretical, Philosophical, Political Approaches
Changing Minds: Theory of Mind and Propaganda in Egon Erwin Kisch s Asien gr ndlich ver ndert Seth Knox
Functional Brain Imaging and the Problem of Other Minds Dan Lloyd, Vince Calhoun, Godfrey Pearlson, and Robert Astur
How is it Possible to Have Empathy? Four Models Fritz Breithaupt
Theory of Mind and the Conscience in El casamiento enga oso Jos Barroso Castro
Contributors
Index
Acknowledgments
As most books do, Theory of Mind and Literature has accumulated a significant number of debts in the course of its development, not least because it has been a collaborative enterprise on several levels since its inception. The book emerges from the exciting interdisciplinary exchanges that took place at a conference of the same name at Purdue University at the end of 2007. Our first debt of gratitude is to the seventy participants in the conference who met over the course of four days to explore intently the importance of Theory of Mind in reading and understanding literature. The conversations, both formal and informal, were exciting, original, and always productive. Many of the essays submitted for consideration in this volume were reworked in light of insights culled from the conference.
Neither the conference, nor this book would have been possible without the unstinting moral and financial support of Purdue University, especially the College of Liberal Arts, under the direction of former Dean John Contreni; the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, under the direction of former Head Paul Dixon; and the Department of Psychological Sciences, under the direction of former Head Howard Weiss. We would also like to thank the following programs and departments for additional generous support: Classics, Film Studies, Jewish Studies, the Department of English, Comparative Literature, and Medieval and Renaissance Studies. We are extremely grateful to Howard Weiss and Christopher Agnew (former and current Head of the Department of Psychological Sciences, respectively) for subsidizing the preparation of the index, and to Tom Berndt (interim Head of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures) for additional support.
For permission to reprint the essays by Mark Turner and Lisa Zunshine, we are grateful to Oxford University Press and the British Academy, to Ohio State University Press, and especially to Ilona Roth for her assistance in reprinting Mark Turner s essay. For careful reading and astute suggestions for revision, we are grateful to the reviewers of the individual essays and the book as a whole. Finally, we would like to thank Charles Watkinson, the Director of Purdue University Press, and the staff of Purdue University Press, especially Katherine Purple and Becki Corbin, for guiding this book patiently and expertly to publication.
Introduction
Theory of Mind (ToM) is what enables us to put ourselves in another s shoes. It is mind reading, empathy, creative imagination of another s perspective: in short, it is simultaneously a highly sophisticated ability, and a very basic necessity for human communication. ToM is central to such commercial endeavors as market research and product development, but it is also just as important in maintaining human relations over a cup of coffee. Not surprisingly, it is a critical tool in reading and understanding literature, which abounds with characters, situations, and other people s shoes. Furthermore, it is becoming increasingly apparent that reading literature also hones these critical mind reading skills (Oatley 2009; Mar, Djikic, Oatley 2008; Zunshine 2006).
In her popular book Mindreading: An Investigation into How We Learn to Love and Lie (1997), the primatologist-journalist Sanjida O Connell defines ToM as:
the mechanism we use to understand what is going on in other people s heads. How we react to one another socially is the most important aspect of our lives. Without an understanding of what people think, what they want and what they believe about the world, it is impossible to operate in any society. Theory of Mind is the name given to this understanding of others. It is the basic necessity of humanity and is understood the same way the world over. (2)
O Connell s use of vocabulary here reflects terms we use frequently in everything we say and write: understand, think, want, believe. She suggests that these verbs have become invisible and that We interpret people s actions using words that describe their mental states so often that we cease to think about what it is we are actually doing (3). ToM is the core tenet of what is often called folk psychology (or belief-desire psychology): the default understanding that other people are (largely) autonomous agents, that they have mental states commonly called beliefs and desires, and that they are motivated by these mental states. When we rely on our folk psychology, we tend to understand, define, and describe people on the basis of their perceived (or understood) beliefs, desires, feelings, values, experiences, and intentions. It is because we understand people s actions in terms of these mental states that we explain to ourselves and to each other why people have done certain things, and predict what they might do in certain contexts.
When we read a work of literature, we treat characters as if they were real people, and we ascribe to them a ToM. We could not understand a novel or a poem if we did not do this:
Without our ability to form a theory of mind, human culture would not be possible. Much of the world of literature, drama, and humor relies on the supreme ability of humans not only to create theories about each character s mind but also to imagine simultaneously how each of these imaginary minds might view the minds of other characters. The tragic nature of Shakespeare s Romeo and Juliet , for instance, comes from a series of misconceptions among the characters that only the audience is aware of. Romeo s suicide is the result of his thinking that Juliet has died, and the audience is aware that if Romeo knew what they knew, this suicide would not have to have happened. To an audience of monkeys, however, Romeo s actions would make no sense, because they wouldn t be able to distinguish between their own beliefs and his.
In this way William F. Allman lays out the basic premise that ToM is as essential for understanding a literary work as it is for understanding a verbal utterance or another human being s motives (68-69).
Psychologist and anthropologist Robin Dunbar attributes to the human ToM the crucial ability to step back from ourselves and look at the rest of the world with an element of disinterest (101). Dunbar describes three levels of ToM: 1) the ability to be aware of our own thoughts; 2) the ability to understand other people s feelings; and 3) the ability to imagine how someone who does not actually exist might respond to particular situations (101-2). Elaborating on this third level of ToM, Dunbar states its obvious implication: we can begin to create literature, to write stories that go beyond a simple description of events as they occurred to delve more and more deeply into why the hero should behave in the way he does, into the feelings that drive him ever onwards in his quest (102).
While psychologi