{"product_id":"the-secret-life-of-literature-isbn-9780262046336","title":"The Secret Life of Literature","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn innovative account that brings together cognitive science, ethnography, and literary history to examine patterns of “mindreading” in a wide range of literary works.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor over four thousand years, writers have been experimenting with what cognitive scientists call “mindreading”: constantly devising new social contexts for making their audiences imagine complex mental states of characters and narrators. In \u003ci\u003eThe Secret Life of Literature\u003c\/i\u003e, Lisa Zunshine uncovers these mindreading patterns, which have, until now, remained invisible to both readers and critics, in works ranging from \u003ci\u003eThe Epic of Gilgamesh\u003c\/i\u003e to \u003ci\u003eInvisible Man\u003c\/i\u003e. Bringing together cognitive science, ethnography, and literary studies, this engaging book transforms our understanding of literary history.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eCentral to Zunshine’s argument is the exploration of mental states “embedded” within each other, as, for instance, when Ellison’s Invisible Man is \u003ci\u003eaware\u003c\/i\u003e of how his white Communist Party comrades \u003ci\u003epretend not to understand\u003c\/i\u003e what he \u003ci\u003emeans\u003c\/i\u003e, when they want to reassert their position of power. Paying special attention to how race, class, and gender inform literary embedments, Zunshine contrasts this dynamic with real-life patterns studied by cognitive and social psychologists. She also considers community-specific mindreading values and looks at the rise and migration of embedment patterns across genres and national literary traditions, noting particularly the use of deception, eavesdropping, and shame as plot devices. Finally, she investigates mindreading in children’s literature. Stories for children geared toward different stages of development, she shows, provide cultural scaffolding for initiating young readers into a long-term engagement with the secret life of literature. \u003cbr\u003e List of Illustrations vii\u003cbr\u003ePreface ix\u003cbr\u003e1 The Secret Life of Literature 1\u003cbr\u003e2 Mindreading and Social Status 59\u003cbr\u003e3 \"Deep\" History: Evolutionary and Neurocognitive Foundations of Complex Embedment 99\u003cbr\u003e4 Cultural History: Ideologies of Mind 113\u003cbr\u003e5 Literary History: The Importance of Being Deceived 141\u003cbr\u003e6 Embedded Mental States in Children's Literature 193\u003cbr\u003eConclusion: On the Future of the \"Secret Life\" of Literature 219\u003cbr\u003eNotes 223\u003cbr\u003eBibliography 273\u003cbr\u003eIndex 305“[A] thrilling read . . . \u003ci\u003eThe Secret Life of Literature\u003c\/i\u003e is written in the kind of accessible, carefully structured style that all interdisciplinary works should strive for, since it makes the study welcoming to researchers from all fields.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eOrbis Litterarum\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“This book opens up a new dimension in the study of literature that will change forever the way we understand our relationship with the authors we read.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eR.I.M. Dunbar, Emeritus Fellow, Magdalen College; Foreign member, Finnish Academy of Science and Letters\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Armed with nonpareil knowledge of world literature and an astonishing grasp of the latest research in cognitive science, Zunshine sets out to answer those questions lovers of literature have always wanted to ask but are afraid to. She succeeds brilliantly, mind-bogglingly so. There has never been anyone who melds the art of close reading with the rigor of experimental science as seamlessly and with such wit as Zunshine. In unweaving the rainbow of literature, she makes it all the more alluring and precious.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eHaiyan Lee, Stanford University\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Bringing an expert review of current insights from cognitive science, developmental psychology, and anthropology into synthesis with compelling tour of 4,000 years of distinct literary traditions, Zunshine’s \u003ci\u003eThe Secret Life of Literature\u003c\/i\u003e guides the reader on an engaging (and often quite funny) expedition in pursuit of embedded mental states in literature and its writers and readers. \u003ci\u003eThe Secret Life of Literature\u003c\/i\u003e will spark 'aha!' moments, hypotheses, and delightful puzzles for any reader curious about how stories work and what we do with them.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e—\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eDavid C. Kidd, Harvard Graduate School of Education\u003c\/b\u003eLisa Zunshine is Bush-Holbrook Professor of English at the University of Kentucky, a Guggenheim Fellow, and the author of \u003ci\u003eWhy We Read Fiction\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eStrange Concepts and the Stories They Make Possible\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGetting Inside Our Head\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"The MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46301698621669,"sku":"NP9780262046336","price":40.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780262046336.jpg?v=1767741412","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-secret-life-of-literature-isbn-9780262046336","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}