Evolutionary Psychology and Literary Criticism : How to Bring the Two Together, and also Build a...
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Transcript of Evolutionary Psychology and Literary Criticism : How to Bring the Two Together, and also Build a...
Evolutionary Psychology and
Literary Criticism:
How to Bring the Two Together,
and also
Build a Better Model of the Evolved Human Mind
We’ll start by building a model of the mind,
working up through three stages:
We’ll start by building a model of the mind,
working up through three stages:
1) Narrow-School EP (Evolutionary Psychology):
(John Tooby and Leda Cosmides, David Buss, Steven Pinker)
We’ll start by building a model of the mind,
working up through three stages:
1) Narrow-School EP (Evolutionary Psychology):
(John Tooby and Leda Cosmides, David Buss, Steven Pinker)
2) Broad-School EP:
(Dave Geary, Kevin MacDonald, Kim Sterelny)
We’ll start by building a model of the mind,
working up through three stages:
1) Narrow-School EP (Evolutionary Psychology):
(John Tooby and Leda Cosmides, David Buss, Steven Pinker)
2) Broad-School EP:
(Dave Geary, Kevin MacDonald, Kim Sterelny)
3) The Fully Human Mind:
(E. O. Wilson, Ellen Dissanayake, Joseph Carroll, Brian Boyd)
The Evolved and Adapted Human Mind
Instincts,
Dispositions,
Motives:Survival
Growing Up
Sociality
Mating
Parenting
Kinship,
plus side effects:
(art, pornography, religion, drugs)
Narrow-School EP =
The Evolved and Adapted Human Mind
Instincts,
Dispositions,
Motives:Survival
Growing Up
Sociality
Mating
Parenting
Kinship,
plus side effects:
(art, pornography, religion, drugs)
Narrow-School EP =
General Intelligence:Technology
Logistics
Social Organization
Trade
Theology
Philosophy
History
Aesthetics
Science
Broad-School EP =
Narrow-School EP
Plus
The Evolved and Adapted Human Mind
Instincts,
Dispositions,
Motives:Survival
Growing Up
Sociality
Mating
Parenting
Kinship,
plus side effects:
(art, pornography, religion, drugs)
Narrow-School EP =
General Intelligence:Technology
Logistics
Social Organization
Trade
Theology
Philosophy
History
Aesthetics
Science
Broad-School EP =
Narrow-School EP
Plus
The Fully Human Mind =
Broad-School EP
Plus
Imagination:Religion
Art
Music
Stories
Myths
Ideology
The Evolved and Adapted Human Mind
General Intelligence and Imagination
are part of human nature—
as faculties,
as motives,
and as adaptive functions.
Narrow-School EP
Basic Motives
Narrow-School EP
Broad-School EP
Basic Motives
General Intelligence
Narrow-School EP
Broad-School EP
The Fully Human Mind
Basic Motives
General Intelligence
Imagination
What does all this
have to do
with
literary Criticism?
Here is the first thing that usually happens
in evolutionary literary study—
and sometimes the only thing that happens.
The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot
Human universals: motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics
Here is the first thing that usually happens
in evolutionary literary study—
and sometimes the only thing that happens.
The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot
Human universals: motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics
What’s missing?
The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot
A specific cultural context: social organization, religion, myths, ideologies, artistic traditions, conventional forms
Human universals: motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics
What’s missing?
Well, culture, for one thing.
The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot
A specific cultural context: social organization, religion, myths, ideologies, artistic traditions, conventional forms
Human universals: motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics
Biocultural Complex
We’ll call this
biocultural critique.
The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot
A specific cultural context: social organization, religion, myths, ideologies, artistic traditions, conventional forms
Human universals: motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics
Biocultural Complex
What else is missing?
The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot
A specific cultural context: social organization, religion, myths, ideologies, artistic traditions, conventional forms
Human universals: motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics
Biocultural Complex
There’s more to
meaning and effect than depicted behavior.
The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot
A specific cultural context: social organization, religion, myths, ideologies, artistic traditions, conventional forms
Human universals: motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics
Biocultural Complex
We can build
meaning and effect
The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot
A specific cultural context: social organization, religion, myths, ideologies, artistic traditions, conventional forms
Human universals: motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics
Biocultural Complex
We can build
meaning and effect piece by piece.
The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot
The Meaning and Effect of the Story
A specific cultural context: social organization, religion, myths, ideologies, artistic traditions, conventional forms
Human universals: motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics
Biocultural Complex
The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot
The Meaning and Effect of the Story
The implied author
A specific cultural context: social organization, religion, myths, ideologies, artistic traditions, conventional forms
Human universals: motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics
Biocultural Complex
The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot
The Meaning and Effect of the Story
The implied author
A specific cultural context: social organization, religion, myths, ideologies, artistic traditions, conventional forms
Human universals: motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics
Biocultural Complex
The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot
The Meaning and Effect of the Story
The implied author
Functional structure of the partsA specific cultural context: social organization, religion, myths, ideologies, artistic traditions, conventional forms
Human universals: motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics
Biocultural Complex
The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot
The Meaning and Effect of the Story
The implied author
Functional structure of the partsA specific cultural context: social organization, religion, myths, ideologies, artistic traditions, conventional forms
Human universals: motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics
Biocultural Complex
The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot
The Meaning and Effect of the Story
The implied author
Functional structure of the parts
The implied reader
A specific cultural context: social organization, religion, myths, ideologies, artistic traditions, conventional forms
Human universals: motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics
Biocultural Complex
The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot
The Meaning and Effect of the Story
The implied author
Functional structure of the parts
The implied reader
A specific cultural context: social organization, religion, myths, ideologies, artistic traditions, conventional forms
Human universals: motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics
Biocultural Complex
The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot
The Meaning and Effect of the Story
The implied author
Functional structure of the parts
The implied reader
You—the reader, the critic, the person who makes sense of it all
A specific cultural context: social organization, religion, myths, ideologies, artistic traditions, conventional forms
Human universals: motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics
Biocultural Complex
The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot
The Meaning and Effect of the Story
The implied author
Functional structure of the parts
The implied reader
You—the reader, the critic, the person who makes sense of it all
A specific cultural context: social organization, religion, myths, ideologies, artistic traditions, conventional forms
Human universals: motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics
Biocultural Complex
Your interpretive and explanatory propositions
Thanks
for
your
Attention.