Why We Read Fiction: Theory of Mind and the Novel (Theory and Interpretation of Narrative) [Paperback]

Lisa Zunshine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 5, 2006 | Series: Theory and Interpretation of Narrative

Why We Read Fiction offers a lucid overview of the most exciting area of research in contemporary cognitive psychology known as "Theory of Mind" and discusses its implications for literary studies. It covers a broad range of fictional narratives, from Richardson’s Clarissa, Dostoyevski’s Crime and Punishment, and Austen’s Pride and Prejudice to Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Nabokov’s Lolita, and Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon. Zunshine’s surprising new interpretations of well-known literary texts and popular cultural representations constantly prod her readers to rethink their own interest in fictional narrative. Written for a general audience, this study provides a jargon-free introduction to the rapidly growing interdisciplinary field known as cognitive approaches to literature and culture.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Lisa Zunshine teaches English literature at the University of Kentucky, Lexington.

Product Details

• Paperback: 198 pages
• Publisher: Ohio State University Press; 1 edition (March 5, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 081425151X
• ISBN-13: 978-0814251515
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #77,488 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lisa Zunshine is a Bush-Holbrook professor of English at the University of Kentucky, Lexington, and the recipient of a 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship. She is the author and editor of nine books, including Bastards and Foundlings: Illegitimacy in Eighteenth-Century England (2005), Why We Read Fiction: Theory of Mind and the Novel (2006), Philanthropy and Fiction, 1698-1818 (2006), Strange Concepts and the Stories They Make Possible: Cognition, Culture, Narrative (2008), Acting Theory and the English Stage, 1700-1830 (2009), and Introduction to Cognitive Cultural Studies (2010).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Remarkable, Exciting Approach to Literature, June 11, 2006

By 

Michael Austin (Wichita, KS) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Why We Read Fiction: Theory of Mind and the Novel (Theory and Interpretation of Narrative) (Paperback)

I purchased WHY WE READ FICTION after reading a number of strong books on evolutionary psychology written for non experts, including Dennett's CONSCIOUSNESS EXPLAINED, Wright's THE MORAL ANIMAL, and Pinker's THE BLANK SLATE. After reading these works and finding myself fascinated by their insights and their explanatory powers, I was curious to see how evolutionary psychology might be applied to my own discipline of literary criticism. I was not disappointed. WHY WE READ FICTION is readable, well conceived, and patiently executed, and it shows beyond any reasonable doubt that the cognitive perspective can be brought to bear on literature in extremely satisfying ways.

Zunshine's major focus in the book is on the phenomenon that that psychologists (and many others) refer to as "Theory of Mind," the cognitive process by which we collect facts about another person, assign various labels and levels of reliability to those facts, and construct a narrative about that person's thoughts, feelings, and motivations. It is our theory of mind that allows us to make reasonable guesses about another person's intentions and future actions while, at the same time, understanding that the other person's perspective is different than our own. Most people exercise their theory of mind automatically without realizing that it is an extremely complicated process built into the human mind through hundreds of thousands of years of natural selection in environments where understanding other people's perspectives was vital to survival. It is not until we encounter people with difficulties forming a theory of mind--such as individuals with autism or Asperger's Syndrome--that we realize what a complicated cognitive process it really is.

After introducing this concept, Zunshine theorizes that fiction of all kinds acts as a kind of exercise program for our Theory of Mind. Much as bodybuilders train their bodies by lifting heavy weights, readers can train their theory of mind by deciphering complicated texts. And to prove it, she uses her critical vocabulary to read and explicate dozens of literary texts, including sustained readings of Richardson's CLARISSA and Nabokov's LOLITA that must be considered interpretive masterpieces.

As a practicing professor of English literature and an occasional author of literary criticism, I have been, for the last ten years or so, increasingly dissatisfied with the dominant critical paradigms available in my field. WHY WE READ FICTION has changed that and introduced me to an exciting new critical vocabulary that is rooted in contemporary scientific discovery and offers the potential for meaningful, sustained interaction between the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A new approach but not the single answer, June 13, 2006

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Why We Read Fiction: Theory of Mind and the Novel (Theory and Interpretation of Narrative) (Paperback)

Anyone who has studied Literary Criticism knows how rich it is in theories which claim to explain it all, and in the end become one more milestone in a vast intricate network of interpretations. The problem of course is that in the discourse of the Humanities there are no ways of simply excising out all the over- interpretations.

This means that a new exciting way of 'reading Literature' is not for experienced readers the 'answer' but rather another creative contribution, hopefully more insightful, cogent, and aesthetically pleasing than most.

Lisa Zunshine presents such a new way of reading. Drawing from evolutionary psychology, and the new cognitive sciences she makes an effort to read Literature in relation to these new ways of understanding ourselves.

And in fact the center of her effort is on the 'theory of the mind' and the way we as readers read novels, put together clues about people in a way similar to the way we do in our everyday lives- and of course in a way similar to our ancestors have done in their historical struggles for survival. We read according to Zunshine in order to figure out what others are thinking and feeling, and in order to develop an understanding of them which will enable us to better live.

She reads a variety of texts in an effort to illustrate these points, and does so with a certain insightfulness and perceptiveness that make the enterprise richly worthwhile.

This book provides a 'new way of seeing' which helps us ' see more' than we would otherwise, and thus is a valuable contribution to readers, and especially to those who love to read about reading.

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Why do YOU read fiction? I know why I do . . ., September 27, 2006

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James R. Fromm "Randy" (Las Cruces, NM) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Why We Read Fiction: Theory of Mind and the Novel (Theory and Interpretation of Narrative) (Paperback)

Of the reviews/comments posted so far, I believe mine might be the only one grounded in having had the opportunity to hear Ms. Zunshine present the core of her arguments which are so wonderfully filled out in this book; or, at least, none have admitted to that fact so far. And, that is really the reason I purchased and read her book. Having recently heard her speak on "source monitoring" and "metarepresentation," which are key and crucial elements of her argument, while at a conference in Ottawa, Ontario, I decided I NEEDED to read this book. There is much she has to say that is relevant to my own readings of Joseph Conrad and the presentation of characters' minds within his texts. While I am not well steeped in current cognitive theories, I never once felt "in over my head" reading her book. Ms. Zunshine has carefully written a highly theoretical text in so tightly focused a way that her arguments concerning Theory of Mind--our innate, though sometimes inadequately developed, ability to sense and grasp the thoughts of others through observation and interaction--and its relation to our reasons for reading fiction are accessible and pleasing to readers of a wide range of experience and education. Having gone through the book but once I am not wholly in agreement with some of her points, but I am sufficiently in agreement that I intend to read it again--particularly after I finish reading Lolita, one of the texts to which she applies her theories. I just hope there is room in the margins for more notes. Other notions I felt were relevant to the ideas presented in this book can be found in Aldous Huxley's concept of "mind at large" as presented in his essay "The Doors of Perception," and a variation of Theory of Mind in the psychological works of R. D. Laing, particulary Politics of Experience. Ms Zunshine's work shares another connection to that of Laing: schizophrenia, and its affect on our ability to accurately track the sources of our own notions.