Literature, Science, And A New Humanities

by Gottschall, Jonathan

• ISBN13: 9780230609037
• ISBN10: 0230609031
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-09-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

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.

Author Biography

Johnathan Gottschall is English Instructor, Washington and Jefferson College.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Shrinking Possibility Space

On Theory, Method, and Attitude

On Theory

On Method

On Attitude

Case Studies at the Nexus of Literature and Evolutionary Science

The Heroine with a Thousand Faces

Testing Feminist Fairy Tale Studies

The Beauty Myth is No Myth

Romantic Love: A Literary Universal

Conclusion: FOTA

Folktale Collections and Cultural Groupings for Chapters Four and Five

Folktale Collections for Chapters Six and Seven

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