Paleopoetics

The Evolution of the Preliterate Imagination

Nonfiction, Science & Nature, Science, Biological Sciences, Evolution, Reference & Language, Language Arts, Linguistics
Cover of the book Paleopoetics by Christopher Collins, Columbia University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Christopher Collins ISBN: 9780231531023
Publisher: Columbia University Press Publication: January 22, 2013
Imprint: Columbia University Press Language: English
Author: Christopher Collins
ISBN: 9780231531023
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Publication: January 22, 2013
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Language: English

Christopher Collins introduces an exciting new field of research traversing evolutionary biology, anthropology, archaeology, cognitive psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, and literary study. Paleopoetics maps the selective processes that originally shaped the human genus millions of years ago and prepared the human brain to play, imagine, empathize, and engage in fictive thought as mediated by language. A manifestation of the "cognitive turn" in the humanities, Paleopoetics calls for a broader, more integrated interpretation of the reading experience, one that restores our connection to the ancient methods of thought production still resonating within us.

Speaking with authority on the scientific aspects of cognitive poetics, Collins proposes reading literature using cognitive skills that predate language and writing. These include the brain's capacity to perceive the visible world, store its images, and retrieve them later to form simulated mental events. Long before humans could share stories through speech, they perceived, remembered, and imagined their own inner narratives. Drawing on a wide range of evidence, Collins builds an evolutionary bridge between humans' development of sensorimotor skills and their achievement of linguistic cognition, bringing current scientific perspective to such issues as the structure of narrative, the distinction between metaphor and metonymy, the relation of rhetoric to poetics, the relevance of performance theory to reading, the difference between orality and writing, and the nature of play and imagination.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Christopher Collins introduces an exciting new field of research traversing evolutionary biology, anthropology, archaeology, cognitive psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, and literary study. Paleopoetics maps the selective processes that originally shaped the human genus millions of years ago and prepared the human brain to play, imagine, empathize, and engage in fictive thought as mediated by language. A manifestation of the "cognitive turn" in the humanities, Paleopoetics calls for a broader, more integrated interpretation of the reading experience, one that restores our connection to the ancient methods of thought production still resonating within us.

Speaking with authority on the scientific aspects of cognitive poetics, Collins proposes reading literature using cognitive skills that predate language and writing. These include the brain's capacity to perceive the visible world, store its images, and retrieve them later to form simulated mental events. Long before humans could share stories through speech, they perceived, remembered, and imagined their own inner narratives. Drawing on a wide range of evidence, Collins builds an evolutionary bridge between humans' development of sensorimotor skills and their achievement of linguistic cognition, bringing current scientific perspective to such issues as the structure of narrative, the distinction between metaphor and metonymy, the relation of rhetoric to poetics, the relevance of performance theory to reading, the difference between orality and writing, and the nature of play and imagination.

More books from Columbia University Press

Cover of the book Twenty-first Century Motherhood by Christopher Collins
Cover of the book The Task Planner by Christopher Collins
Cover of the book The Taste of Apples by Christopher Collins
Cover of the book Man, the State, and War by Christopher Collins
Cover of the book Sinning in the Hebrew Bible by Christopher Collins
Cover of the book Plasticity at the Dusk of Writing by Christopher Collins
Cover of the book Thick and Dazzling Darkness by Christopher Collins
Cover of the book The Assault on Social Policy by Christopher Collins
Cover of the book At the End of the Street in the Shadow by Christopher Collins
Cover of the book A Genetic and Cultural Odyssey by Christopher Collins
Cover of the book Palestinian Identity by Christopher Collins
Cover of the book The Taliban's Virtual Emirate by Christopher Collins
Cover of the book Geochemistry by Christopher Collins
Cover of the book Far Beyond the Field by Christopher Collins
Cover of the book Narrating Social Work Through Autoethnography by Christopher Collins
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy