Graphing Jane Austen
Subtitle: the evolutionary basis of literary meaning
By: Joseph Carroll ... [et al.].
Series: Cognitive studies in literature and performance
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New York, N.Y
Language: eng
Number of pages: 305
ISBN-13: 9781137002402
Subjects: Statistics; Characters; English fiction; Human behavior in literature; Reader-response criticism; Characters and characteristics in literature; History and criticism
Other titles: Evolutionary basis of literary meaning
Description: Building on findings in the evolutionary human sciences, we constructed a model of human nature and used it to illuminate the evolved psychology that shapes the organization of characters in nineteenth-century British novels (Austen to Forster). Hundreds of readers gave numerical ratings to the attributes of hundreds of characters and also rated their own emotional responses to the characters. We draw conclusions about the determinacy of literary meaning, interactions between gender and the ethos of community, and the adaptive function of morally polarized characterization. The broad patterns in the novels provide a framework for two case studies: the novels of Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Methods and results. A user's manual; Agonistic structure differentiated by sex; title: Implications. Determinate meanings; Sexual politics; Adaptive function; title: Case studies. Jane Austen, by the numbers; Indifferent tragedy in The mayor of Casterbridge; title: Conclusion; title: Glossary; title: Appendices. A link to the questionnaire; Characters for whom protocols were completed;  The distribution of characters in sets; Notes on statistical procedures; Results of factor analysis for emotional responses, motives, and mate selection; Statistically significant results.