A Cognitive Approach to John Donne s Songs and Sonnets

Investigations into how the brain actually works have led to remarkable discoveries and these findings carry profound implications for interpreting literature. This study applies recent breakthroughs from neuroscience and evolutionary psychology in order to deepen our understanding of John Donne's Songs and Sonnets.

"Winkelman's book offers his readers one of the most thought-provoking and well-documented studies of the recent developments in cognitive science and their rich implications for how we read and mentally respond to John Donne's highly dramatic and unprecedented early modern poetry. As the study clearly demonstrates, the reader's cognitive response is a vital element in the poem's expression of an inner reality." - Helen B. Brooks, Department of English, Stanford University

Auteur
Michael Winkleman is a lecturer in Renaissance English Literature at Bowling Green State University.

Contenu
Introduction: 'Love Sometimes Would Contemplate, Sometimes Do' 1. 'My Verse, the Strict Map of my Misery': Of Metaphors and Mindscapes 2. The Composing of 'A Jeat Ring sent'; or Donne as Thinker and Imaginator 3. 'A Lecture, Love, in loves philosophy': Donne's Illuminating Anatomizations 4. 'John Donne, Anne Donne, Vn-done'? A Biocultural Reassessment of Their Scandalous Marriage 5. 'Firme substantial love': Donne's Penetrating Observations 6. 'The Very Ecstasy of Love': Prescriptions for Bliss in Irvine Welsh and John Donne 7. Sighs and Tears: Biological Costly Signals and Donne's 'whining Poëtry' 8. 'Verse that drawes Natures workes, from Natures law'; or, Prolegomenon to a Darwinian Defence of Literature Conclusion: Why Cognitive Science Matters Now