Related Articles:
What are Literary Universals?
Story Universals
Universals of Imagery

Patrick Colm Hogan argues that, to a remarkable degree, the stories people admire in different cultures follow a limited number of patterns determined by cross-culturally constant ideas about emotion. Hogan draws on world literature; experimental research treating emotion and emotion concepts; and methodological principles from contemporary linguistics and philosophy of science. He concludes with a discussion of the relationship between the narrative, emotion concepts, and the biological and social components of emotion.

Review: "This marvelous book reconnects the study of literature to the themes that have made it eternally fascinating, and connects it for the first time to the sciences of mind and brain. It is a landmark in modern intellectual life, heralding an exciting new integration of the sciences and humanities." -Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of "The Blank Slate", "How the Mind Works", and "The Language Instinct"

"With painstaking scholarship and subtle theorizing, Patrick Colm Hogan marshals a compelling case for the trans-cultural reach of narrative forms. He shows in rich detail how plot structures recurring across world literature express emotional universals. 'The Mind and Its Stories' is stimulating on several levels. It contributes a nuanced conception of universals to the philosophical debate. It offers cognitive scientists a remarkable occasion for rethinking the relation of emotion to culture and to human nature. And by providing enormously wide-ranging evidence for narrative universals, Hogan may touch off nothing short of a revolution in literary studies." -David Bordwell, Jacques Ledoux Professor of Film Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison

"'The Mind and its Stories' is in the forefront of the scientific study of literature as a product of the capacities of the human mind. Patrick Colm Hogan shows how human cognitive processes of story lie at the center of both cognitive science and the study of verbal art." -Mark Turner, Distinguished University Professor, The University of Maryland and Associate Director, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences

Contents

Introduction: Studying narrative, studying emotion;
1. Literary universals;
2. Emotion and suggestion: Lexical processes in literary experience;
3. Four hypotheses on emotion and narrative;
4. Writing beyond the ending: A problem of narrative, empathy, and ethics;
5. Extending the theory: Emotion prototypes, narrative junctures, and lyric poetry;
6. Testing, revision, and the program of research in narrative universals: Ainu epic and the plot of sacrifice;
7. The structure of stories: Some general principles of plot;
Afterward: From the emotional nature of narrative to the narrative nature of emotion;
Notes;
Works Cited

Series: Studies in Emotion and Social Interaction 2003/320 pp./1 table 0-521-82527-X Hardback: $65.00

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