Adapted Brains and Imaginary Worlds: Cognitive Science and the Literature of the Renaissance by Donald Beecher

Abstract

First paragraph: It is remarkable that it is only over the last few decades that literary studies have begun to take into consideration the nature of the mind, both in terms of its representation in literary works and in terms of how the cognitive capacities of authors and readers engage with works and bring those works into being. Several reasons can be posited for this, including the so-called art and science wars and, more fundamentally, the manifest gap between scientific research on the brain and the mental states that are (though often unwittingly) a focus of cultural and literary analysis. The difficulty of attempting to bridge this gap is evident in the fact that, as Donald Beecher describes, his magnum opus is the outcome of a decade of research.