On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and FictionHarvard University Press, 15 nov 2010 - 560 páginas A century and a half after the publication of Origin of Species, evolutionary thinking has expanded beyond the field of biology to include virtually all human-related subjects—anthropology, archeology, psychology, economics, religion, morality, politics, culture, and art. Now a distinguished scholar offers the first comprehensive account of the evolutionary origins of art and storytelling. Brian Boyd explains why we tell stories, how our minds are shaped to understand them, and what difference an evolutionary understanding of human nature makes to stories we love. Art is a specifically human adaptation, Boyd argues. It offers tangible advantages for human survival, and it derives from play, itself an adaptation widespread among more intelligent animals. More particularly, our fondness for storytelling has sharpened social cognition, encouraged cooperation, and fostered creativity. After considering art as adaptation, Boyd examines Homer’s Odyssey and Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hears a Who! demonstrating how an evolutionary lens can offer new understanding and appreciation of specific works. What triggers our emotional engagement with these works? What patterns facilitate our responses? The need to hold an audience’s attention, Boyd underscores, is the fundamental problem facing all storytellers. Enduring artists arrive at solutions that appeal to cognitive universals: an insight out of step with contemporary criticism, which obscures both the individual and universal. Published for the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of Origin of Species, Boyd’s study embraces a Darwinian view of human nature and art, and offers a credo for a new humanism. |
Índice
Animal Human Art Story | 1 |
Evolution Art and Fiction | 13 |
From Zeus to Seuss Origins of Stories | 209 |
Retrospect and Prospects Evolution Literature Criticism | 380 |
Evolution Art Story Purpose | 399 |
Notes | 417 |
Bibliography | 457 |
509 | |
Otras ediciones - Ver todo
On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction Brian Boyd Vista previa restringida - 2009 |
On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction Brian Boyd Vista previa restringida - 2010 |
Términos y frases comunes
actions active adaptation allows animals appeal artistic attention audience become behavior belief benefits better biological brain capacity cause Chapter characters cognitive common complex cooperation costs creativity criticism culture develop earn emotions engage evolution evolutionary evolved expectations experience explain face feel fiction function gods Greek Hears Homer Horton human human nature ideas imagine immediate individual infants infer intelligence interest invented kinds language less literature lives look means memory mind moral move narrative nature notes Odysseus offers organisms origin particular past patterns person Phaiakians play possible problems produce punishment reason response seems selection sense Seuss shape share situations social societies solutions species status story storytelling success suggest suitors tell theory things tion tradition turn understand unique universal whole Wilson