Brian Boyd explains why we tell stories and how our minds are shaped to understand them.
After considering art as adaptation, Boyd examines Homer's Odyssey and Dr. Seuss's …

? We tell ourselves stories in order to live,? Joan Didion observed in The White Album. Why
is this? Michael Austin asks, in Useful Fictions. Why, in particular, are human beings, whose …

In this fresh and often playful interdisciplinary study, Lisa Zunshine presents a fluid
discussion of how key concepts from cognitive science complicate our cultural …

This remarkable and monumental book at last provides a comprehensive answer to the age-
old riddle of whether there are only a small number of'basic stories' in the world. Using a …

This book helps to bridge the gap between science and literary scholarship. Building on
findings in the evolutionary human sciences, the authors construct a model of human nature …

" Of Literature and Knowledge looks... like an important advance in this new and very
important subject... literature is about to become even more interesting."–Edward O. Wilson …

As the founder and leading practitioner of" literary Darwinism," Joseph Carroll remains at the
forefront of a major movement in literary studies. Signaling key new developments in this …

Humans live in landscapes of make-believe. We spin fantasies. We devour novels, films,
and plays. Even sporting events and criminal trials unfold as narratives. Yet the world of …

The compelling, groundbreaking guide to creative writing that reveals how the brain
responds to storytelling Stories shape who we are. They drive us to act out our dreams and …

Why did Jesus speak in parables? Why does Plato's Socrates make bad arguments? Why
do we root for criminal heroes? In mummy movies, why is the skeptic always the first to go …