num_pages: 464
description: This fascinating (Malcolm Gladwell New York Times bestselling author of Outliers ) examination of literary inventions through the ages from ancient Mesopotamia to Elena Ferrante shows how writers have created technical breakthroughsrivaling scientific inventionsand engineering enhancements to the human heart and mind.Literature is a technology like any other. And the writers we reverefrom Homer Shakespeare Austen and otherseach made a unique technical breakthrough that can be viewed as both a narrative and neuroscientific advancement. Literatures great invention was to address problems we could not not how to start a fire or build a boat but how to live and love; how to maintain courage in the face of death; how to account for the fact that we exist at all.Wonderworks reviews the blueprints for twenty-five of the most significant developments in the history of literature. These inventions can be scientifically shown to alleviate grief trauma loneliness anxiety numbness depression pessimism and ennui while sparking creativity courage love empathy hope joy and positive change. They can be found throughout literaturefrom ancient Chinese lyrics to Shakespeares plays poetry to nursery rhymes and fairy tales and crime novels to slave narratives.A refreshing and remarkable (Jay Parini author of Borges and An Encounter ) exploration of the new literary field of story science Wonderworks teaches you everything you wish you learned in your English class and contains many instances of critical insight....Whats most interesting about this compendium is its understanding of imaginative representation as a technology ( The New York Times ).
language: English
title: Wonderworks: The 25 Most Powerful Inventions in the History of Literature
publisher: Simon & Schuster