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How Literature Plays with the Brain : The Neuroscience of Reading and Art by Paul B. Armstrong (2014, Trade Paperback)

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In How Literature Plays with the Brain, Armstrong examines the parallels between certain features of literary experience and functions of the brain. These oppositions negotiate basic tensions in the operation of the brain between the drive for pattern, synthesis, and constancy and the need for flexibility, adaptability, and openness to change.

About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherJohns Hopkins University Press

ISBN-101421415763

ISBN-139781421415765

eBay Product ID (ePID)220007087

Product Key Features

Number of Pages240 Pages

Publication NameHow Literature Plays with the Brain : the Neuroscience of Reading and Art

LanguageEnglish

SubjectCognitive Science, Neuroscience, General, Semiotics & Theory, Neuropsychology

Publication Year2014

TypeTextbook

Subject AreaLiterary Criticism, Science, Psychology, Medical

AuthorPaul B. Armstrong

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height0.6 in

Item Weight12 Oz

Item Length9 in

Item Width6 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

LCCN2012-044603

Dewey Edition23

Reviews 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., 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., ""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."", 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., 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., 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., 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.

Grade FromCollege Graduate Student

IllustratedYes

Dewey Decimal801.92

Table Of ContentPreface 1. The Brain and Aesthetic Experience 2. How the Brain Learns to Read and the Play of Harmony and Dissonance 3. The Neuroscience of the Hermeneutic Circle 4. The Temporality of Reading and the Decentered Brain 5. The Social Brain and the Paradox of the Alter Ego Epilogue Notes Index

Synopsis'Literature matters,' says Paul B. Armstrong, 'for what it reveals about human experience, and the very different perspective of neuroscience on how the brain works is part of that story.' In How Literature Plays with the Brain, Armstrong examines the parallels between certain features of literary experience and functions of the brain. His central argument is that literature plays with the brain through experiences of harmony and dissonance which set in motion oppositions that are fundamental to the neurobiology of mental functioning. These oppositions negotiate basic tensions in the operation of the brain between the drive for pattern, synthesis, and constancy and the need for flexibility, adaptability, and openness to change.The challenge, Armstrong argues, is to account for the ability of readers to find incommensurable meanings in the same text, for example, or to take pleasure in art that is harmonious or dissonant, symmetrical or distorted, unified or discontinuous and disruptive. How Literature Plays with the Brain is the first book to use the resources of neuroscience and phenomenology to analyze aesthetic experience. For the neuroscientific community, the study suggests that different areas of researchthe neurobiology of vision and reading, the brain-body interactions underlying emotionsmay be connected to a variety of aesthetic and literary phenomena. For critics and students of literature, the study engages fundamental questions within the humanities: What is aesthetic experience? What happens when we read a literary work? How does the interpretation of literature relate to other ways of knowing?, An original interdisciplinary study positioned at the intersection of literary theory and neuroscience. "Literature matters," says Paul B. Armstrong, "for what it reveals about human experience, and the very different perspective of neuroscience on how the brain works is part of that story." In How Literature Plays with the Brain , Armstrong examines the parallels between certain features of literary experience and functions of the brain. His central argument is that literature plays with the brain through experiences of harmony and dissonance which set in motion oppositions that are fundamental to the neurobiology of mental functioning. These oppositions negotiate basic tensions in the operation of the brain between the drive for pattern, synthesis, and constancy and the need for flexibility, adaptability, and openness to change. The challenge, Armstrong argues, is to account for the ability of readers to find incommensurable meanings in the same text, for example, or to take pleasure in art that is harmonious or dissonant, symmetrical or distorted, unified or discontinuous and disruptive. How Literature Plays with the Brain is the first book to use the resources of neuroscience and phenomenology to analyze aesthetic experience. For the neuroscientific community, the study 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. For critics and students of literature, the study engages fundamental questions within the humanities: What is aesthetic experience? What happens when we read a literary work? How does the interpretation of literature relate to other ways of knowing?, 'Literature matters,' says Paul B. Armstrong, 'for what it reveals about human experience, and the very different perspective of neuroscience on how the brain works is part of that story.' In How Literature Plays with the Brain, Armstrong examines the parallels between certain features of literary experience and functions of the brain. His ......, "Literature matters," says Paul B. Armstrong, "for what it reveals about human experience, and the very different perspective of neuroscience on how the brain works is part of that story." In How Literature Plays with the Brain , Armstrong examines the parallels between certain features of literary experience and functions of the brain. His central argument is that literature plays with the brain through experiences of harmony and dissonance which set in motion oppositions that are fundamental to the neurobiology of mental functioning. These oppositions negotiate basic tensions in the operation of the brain between the drive for pattern, synthesis, and constancy and the need for flexibility, adaptability, and openness to change. The challenge, Armstrong argues, is to account for the ability of readers to find incommensurable meanings in the same text, for example, or to take pleasure in art that is harmonious or dissonant, symmetrical or distorted, unified or discontinuous and disruptive. How Literature Plays with the Brain is the first book to use the resources of neuroscience and phenomenology to analyze aesthetic experience. For the neuroscientific community, the study 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. For critics and students of literature, the study engages fundamental questions within the humanities: What is aesthetic experience? What happens when we read a literary work? How does the interpretation of literature relate to other ways of knowing?