Articles & Essays Book Reviews Creative Writing
Consciousness, Literature and the Arts
Volume 18 Number 1, April 2017
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Beecher, Donald. Adapted Brains and Imaginary Worlds: Cognitive Science and the Literature of Renaissance. Montreal&Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2016. 496pp, ISBN 978-0-7735-4680-6 (bound), ISBN 978-0-7735-4681-3 (paperback).
Reviewed by
Middle East Technical University
Donald Beecher’s book which has been dedicated to his daughter, Sophie, comprises an explanatory Introduction, 11 Chapters followed by a detailed Notes section covering 81 pages, a comprehensive Bibliography of 26 pages and an Index. More than 200 names of authorities related to cognitive matters get mentioned in the book.
In the 45-page long Introduction, Beecher presents his awareness of the fact that he has to clarify constantly what he is writing about providing relevant concepts and terminology related to cognitive sciences. He observes “the faculties of mind” leading to “literary representations”. He also draws attention to “genetic intelligence” of the human species and “the adaptive brain” and the connection of the workings of the brain to literary studies and interpretations.
In Chapter One, focusing on the play Doctor Faustus and the titular character, Beecher wants to show how Dr. Faustus and his multi-layered self becomes the striking example of observing a created literary character through cognitive analysis.
In Chapter Two, Beecher makes use of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure to show the computational brains of the major characters and what the brain is doing when a person makes ethical judgements. Observing the difficult play, Measure for Measure, Beecher wants to draw attention to the writer’s mind (in this case, Shakespeare, the playwright), the mind of characters in the play, and the mind of the spectators (the onlookers of the play). In this Chapter, the rational (thinking) and the emotional (feeling) brain regions are observed which have been genetically transferred to the human being and how the individual is affected by the workings of these regions.
In Chapter Three, Beecher observes the mind of a criminal in the anonymous play, The Yorkshire Tragedy, which was published in 1608. Again the questions arise: How did the writer's mind work in creating such a character, how did the criminal’s mind work, and consequently what do the spectators/readers think and feel? Briefly, what is happening in the brain?
In Chapter Four, Beecher by taking up Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene and Thomas North’s The Moral Philosophy of Doni , explores what literature can teach while the brain of the learner is prioritizing what is received. While the author, through his/her memory reaches the reader, the reader’s memory creates what is received. Beecher, in this Chapter generously provides detailed explanations on what is happening in the brain during the reading process and indeed what is happening when the reader remembers the story. Beecher sees reading Spenser as “ a good cognitive practice”.
In Chapter Five, Beecher takes Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well and while dealing with “crying” in this play, draws the attention to the fact that people do not learn to cry and that it is “a common genetic inheritance” since individuals share “a neurological architecture”.
In Chapter Six, Beecher observes the proverb culture of the Medieval Ages through The Dialogue of Solomon and Marcolphus and presents the capacity of the brain to decode and through “mental processing”, through “complex computational operations”, the brain “ maps generic orders onto specific situations” thereby manifesting a “computational plasticity”.
In Chapter Seven, by focusing on “romance”, Beecher states that “romance” themes are adaptive themes. To support his argument, he gives detailed analysis of Aethiopica and Menaphon.
Chapter Eight, clearly presents the fact that “human emotions run on their own genetically prepared programs built into the phenotype” while exploring “suspense” which actually is in the brain rather than being in the text. Beecher, also discusses “empathy”; whether it is learned or whether it is dictated by our genes.
Chapter Nine is on “laughter”. Beecher, while tracing the background of “laughter”, refers to The Witch of Edmonton and The History of James the Fourth. He even mentions “the science of laughter”. He goes on mentioning how the brain can be measured during “laughter” and what kind of neuron activity can be observed.
In Chapter Ten, through the examples of Familiar Letters by Francesco Petrarch, Beecher presents “the letter as spiritual drama” and again he explores what happens cognitively and emotionally during a conversion resulting from this spiritual drama.
In Chapter Eleven, through the example of John Marston’s The Fawn, Beecher quetions the issue of establishing “the personhood” of literary characters. There is always the problem of solving how real the literary characters are. Should the reader be aware of the “as if” situtation while the plays (or literary works) are becoming “thought experiments”?
Donald Beecher has taken up the challenging task of observing the human mind (being aware of the inherited genetic codes pertaining to human species) and its adaptive qualities while encountering a literary text (be it a play, poem, story, proverb, letter). To present this challenging task, in each Chapter before moving onto the examples, Beecher gives detailed arguments about the mind and the cognitive approach to literature. To do this, at times, he develops a conversational tone adding his “between-the-lines” comments on what he is presenting and promts the reader by his remarks.
On the whole, the book is a highly advanced literary text which would appeal to literary specialists dealing with cognitive sciences and cognitive approaches to literature and it would intrigue cognitive scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, linguists, neuroscientists, evolutionary psychologists, and all the thinkers working on the evolution of human cognition and evolutionary theory.