Brain, Mind, and the Narrative Imagination

Stories can inspire love, anger, fear and nostalgia – but what is going on in our brains when this happens? And how do our minds conjure up worlds and characters from the words we read on the page? Rapid advances in the scientific understanding of the brain have cast new light on how we engage with literature. This book – collaboratively written by an experienced neuroscientist and literary critic and writer – explores these new insights. Key concepts in neuroscience are first introduced for non-specialists and a range of literary texts by writers such as Ian McEwan, Jim Crace and E.L. Doctorow are read in light of the latest scientific thought on the workings of the mind and brain. Brain, Mind, and the Narrative Imagination demonstrates how literature taps into deep structures of memory and emotion that lie at the heart of our humanity. It will be of interest to readers of all sorts and students from both the humanities and the sciences.

Table of Contents:
List of Figures Preface Acknowledgments Introduction Back to the Future PART I: Motivations to Explore Our Storied Mind Chapter 1 The Scheherazade Syndrome Chapter 2 Orchestrating the Imagination PART II: Into the Neural Terrain Chapter 3 Brain and Behavior Chapter 4 Deep Substrates of Narrative Imagination PART III: The Journey from Words to Narratives Chapter 5 Compelled by Words Chapter 6 The Cognitive Habitat of Narratives PART IV: Converging Paths? Chapter 7 Affective Cognition and Sociality Chapter 8 The Feeling of What Happened Chapter 9 Memory, Imagination, Self Chapter 10 The via dolorosa of the Self Afterword References Cited Index

About the Author :
Christopher Comer is Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Montana, USA. Ashley Taggart is Lecturer in the School of English Drama and Film at University College Dublin, Ireland.

Review :
It is easy to get lost in the narrative of this book, only to remember how meta the experience is. This accessible book will interest readers in the sciences as well as the humanities. I have always thought that studies of the brain conducted by neuroscientists had nothing to tell us about the literary imagination and the process of interpretation. After reading Christopher Comer and Ashley Taggart's new book, I find my mind completely changed. Drawing on multiple disciplines on both sides of the aisle, the authors amply demonstrate that by exploring the master category of narrative our understanding of both the brain as a physical mechanism and of literature as a resource for living can be greatly enhanced. A notable achievement! This book is an essential read, since it offers eloquent debate around story-telling, what it has to tell us about the brain, and thence about ourselves. Of the works I am aware of, [Brain, Mind and the Narrative Imagination] provides the clearest, most thorough, and fairest treatment of neurocognitive literary study today.