How Literature Plays with the Brain by Paul B Armstrong

Skip to product information
1 of 1

Click to look inside

How Literature Plays with the Brain by Paul B Armstrong

Regular price
Checking stock...
Regular price
Checking stock...
Summary

Examines the parallels between certain features of literary experience and functions of the brain. For the neuroscientific community, this book suggests that different areas of research - the neurobiology of vision and reading, the brain-body interactions underlying emotions - may be connected to a variety of aesthetic and literary phenomena.

The feel-good place to buy books
  • Free US shipping over $15
  • Buying preloved emits 41% less CO2 than new
  • Millions of affordable books
  • Give your books a new home - sell them back to us!

How Literature Plays with the Brain by Paul B Armstrong

Examines the parallels between certain features of literary experience and functions of the brain. For the neuroscientific community, this book suggests that different areas of research - the neurobiology of vision and reading, the brain-body interactions underlying emotions - may be connected to a variety of aesthetic and literary phenomena.
Armstrong's book is a testament to the value of the arts and the humanities since their processes and productions generate ideas that are literally the physical (neurobiological) stuff of which we are made-- Gregory F. Tague ASEBL Journal How Literature Plays with the Brain: The Neuroscience of Reading and Art is a highly informative and carefully argued book. We recommend a close reading of it. Linguistic and Philosophical Investigations Armstrong's book is a beautiful example of how humanities scholars can accomplish a conversation across the gap between the 'two cultures' without giving up their disciplinary identity, bringing the larger picture to bear on the more particular research of the cognitive sciences. -- Karin Kukkonen Cambridge Quarterly Armstrong finds his inspiration in recent neuroscience... his overview of mirror neuron theory and the controversies that surround it, for example, outdoes in accuracy and judiciousness any other account I have seen among neuroaesthetics and cognitive literary studies. Modern Fiction Studies At present, when so many universities would gleefully discard the study of the arts in the service of a utilitarian turn in higher education, the evidence that Armstrong provides for their vital cognitive function and the coherence with which he presents that evidence is indeed both welcome and timely. Philosophy and Literature s
Paul B. Armstrong is a professor of English at Brown University. He is the author of several books, including Conflicting Readings: Variety and Validity in Interpretation and Play and the Politics of Reading: The Social Uses of Modernist Form.
SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9781421415765
ISBN 10 1421415763
Title How Literature Plays with the Brain
Author Paul B Armstrong
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Paperback
Publisher Johns Hopkins University Press
Year published 2014-08-11
Number of pages 240
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.