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  1. Voice and Perception : An evolutionary approach to the basic functions of narrative
    Published: 09.09.2015

    Whereas in traditional models of literary narrative we had to deal with typologies mainly (for instance, of "narrative situations"; see Stanzel 1971, 1984; Fludernik and Margolin 2004; Genette 1980), we now possess a systematic description of the... more

     

    Whereas in traditional models of literary narrative we had to deal with typologies mainly (for instance, of "narrative situations"; see Stanzel 1971, 1984; Fludernik and Margolin 2004; Genette 1980), we now possess a systematic description of the imagination evoked by a text, which takes into account the quasi-ontological (see Bortolussi and Dixon 2003) status of its constituents. In this chapter I search for the cognitive functions that correlate with the text features of "voice" and "perception" and for how they bring about such a "layered" imagination in the reader. The aim is to explain how and why literary narratives can run properly in the human mind-which is another way of asking how humans could develop narrative discourse as a way of communication at all.

     

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    Source: CompaRe
    Language: English
    Media type: Part of a book; Part of a book
    Format: Online
    ISBN: 978-0-292-72888-2
    DDC Categories: 800
    Subjects: Narrativität; Stimme; Kognitionswissenscahft
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  2. Evolutionary psychology as a heuristic in literary studies
    Published: 09.09.2015

    There has been a great deal of uproar about Darwinian approaches in literary scholarship. Statements range from enthusiastic prophecies of a new paradigm for literary studies to acrimonious scoldings of reductionism. Believing that the major... more

     

    There has been a great deal of uproar about Darwinian approaches in literary scholarship. Statements range from enthusiastic prophecies of a new paradigm for literary studies to acrimonious scoldings of reductionism. Believing that the major challenge is first to find good questions to which evolutionary psychology might provide us with good answers, I outline and critically assess different veins of argumentation as revealed in recent contributions to the field. As an alternative to some simplistic mimeticism in present Literary Darwinism, I put forward the idea of evolutionary psychology as a heuristic theory that serves to resolve defined problems in interpretation and literary theory.

     

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    Source: CompaRe
    Language: English
    Media type: Part of a book; Part of a book
    Format: Online
    ISBN: 978-90-420-3397-9
    DDC Categories: 800
    Subjects: Literaturwissenschaft; Evolutionspsychologie; Heuristik
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  3. Is storytelling a biological adaptation? : Preliminary thoughts on how to pose that question
    Published: 10.09.2015

    Verbal storytelling – in a sense broad enough to include all forms from casual conversation across oral folklore to written literature – seems to be a universal human activity and has thus been considered an evolutionary adaptation several times in... more

     

    Verbal storytelling – in a sense broad enough to include all forms from casual conversation across oral folklore to written literature – seems to be a universal human activity and has thus been considered an evolutionary adaptation several times in the past few years. The fact that a particular trait is a species-wide universal, however, does not automatically make it an adaptation; it could also be a contingent universal, that is, a cultural behavior which notably relies on biological substrates and therefore emerges in similar fashions in all human cultures, times, and milieus. Yet verbal storytelling is not only universal but also distinct to our species. The uniqueness of a trait can indeed be indicative of a biological adaptation1 in that we have reason to assume that this trait emerged newly in the given animal lineage and thus might owe its existence to the process of natural selection. However, since verbal storytelling completely depends on language, that is, another uniquely human faculty, the uniqueness of storytelling is hardly surprising and cannot serve as a conclusive argument for considering storytelling itself to be a specifically selected trait. Storytelling could simply be a particular use of language (though we shall see below that the relationship between language and narration is a little more complicated). A third possible indication of a biological adaptation, however, is the fact that storytelling seems to be a notably self-rewarding activity. It occurs on a much larger scale than would seem justified by rational choice or other reasons. As fitness-enhancing behaviors should, as a rule, be intrinsically motivated under certain conditions, the unusually high frequency of storytelling might indeed be revealing of an innate preference for this behavior.

     

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    Source: CompaRe
    Language: English
    Media type: Part of a book; Part of a book
    Format: Online
    ISBN: 978-3-11-026859-1
    DDC Categories: 800
    Subjects: Erzählen; Evolutionspsychologie; Kulturelle Evolution
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  4. Vuoti di memoria : quattro voci sull'oblio
    Published: 18.08.2015

    Queste note su memoria e oblio prendono le mosse da due fenomeni noti, pur nella loro enigmaticità, e apparentemente opposti come il déjà-vu e il jamais-vu. Accade qualcosa e si ha l'impressione che si stia ripetendo un evento già vissuto, oppure ci... more

     

    Queste note su memoria e oblio prendono le mosse da due fenomeni noti, pur nella loro enigmaticità, e apparentemente opposti come il déjà-vu e il jamais-vu. Accade qualcosa e si ha l'impressione che si stia ripetendo un evento già vissuto, oppure ci si trova in un luogo praticato da anni e, a un certo punto, letteralmente, non lo si riconosce più, percependolo come nuovo ed estraneo. Si tratta di sentimenti che, pur facendo parte dell'esperienza più comune, conservano un alone di opacità. Sia nella "familiarità estranea" sia nella "estraneità familiare" si ha a che fare con uno spaesamento, una vertigine emotiva che sulle prime fa retroagire la nostra comprensione. In entrambi i casi lo stupore si accompagna all'inquietudine: la portata dirompente del nuovo strappa fuori dal riparo delle proprie certezze, dall'impalcatura delle proprie conoscenze. Sono i momenti di interferenza di livelli temporali diversi, in cui alla finitudine dell'evento vissuto si giustappone l'illimitata dimensione del ricordo. La simultaneità delle sfere contrapposte, il loro cortocircuitare e sovrapporsi, dà luogo a uno spaesamento, che talvolta assume un carattere demonico, perturbante (unheimlich), per dirla con Freud. Il senso dell'Unheimlichkeit fa tutt'uno con il sentimento di angoscia o di terrore che si genera nella conversione dell'opposto, quando il noto diventa fonte di terrore, quando il familiare si fa estraneo, o anche quando l'estraneo appare come familiare. Il ritorno del rimosso, sotto forma di paure o desideri inconfessabili, rinvia ai conflitti dell'infanzia e alle fase arcaiche della vita umana. In questo senso rappresenta una "promessa" che il presente non ha saputo esaudire, e che sopravvive in tutta la sua carica sovversiva.

     

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    Source: CompaRe
    Language: Italian
    Media type: Part of a book; Part of a book
    Format: Online
    ISBN: 978-88-575-1081-1
    DDC Categories: 830
    Subjects: Vergessen <Motiv>; Bloch, Ernst; Tieck, Ludwig; Benjamin, Walter; Kafka, Franz
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  5. From collective creativity to authorial primacy : Gottsched's reformation of the German theatre from a mediological point of view
    Published: 07.04.2015

    Theatre constitutes a form of collective creativity. This idea is not as self-evident as one might expect. To some extent the collective Character of this art form had to be rediscovered over the course of the twentieth century, as theatre... more

     

    Theatre constitutes a form of collective creativity. This idea is not as self-evident as one might expect. To some extent the collective Character of this art form had to be rediscovered over the course of the twentieth century, as theatre emancipated itself from the primacy of the literary text and thus from the primacy of the author. In fact, the collective character of this art form was fully brought into view again only with the debates about a post-dramatic theatre of the last few decades. In this essay I will tum back to the point in cultural history when literature started to dominate theatre and when the supremacy accorded the author began to annul theatre's collective character. This paradigmatic shift in the evolution of theatre occurred during the eighteenth century, and it is represented primarily by Johann Christoph Gottsched. In the following I will investigate Gottsched's efforts to reform the theatre of his age from a mediological point of view.

     

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    Source: CompaRe
    Language: English
    Media type: Part of a book; Part of a book
    Format: Online
    ISBN: 978-90-420-3273-6
    DDC Categories: 830
    Subjects: Theater
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