ENG32830 Lit and the new Brain Sciences

Academic Year 2024/2025

Rapid advances in the scientific understanding of the brain have cast new light on how we engage with Literature and Drama. The more that we grapple with the hidden structures of our minds, the clearer it becomes that, as a species, we are “wired for story”. For the vast majority of our evolution - our prehistory - these stories were recounted and re-enacted orally, by firesides and in social groups. Such retellings and re-enactments were the precursors to the literature and drama of today, These in turn could only happen through the late development of writing, made possible by a remarkable process of retraining (exaption) of parts of the brain which evolved for an entirely different purpose.

Our ability to enter into fictional and dramatic realms – to empathise with characters we know do not “exist”, feel their pains and joys, the suspense of their tribulations, and even to experience a sense of transport or communitas – is often taken for granted. Yet in the last 15 years, Neuroscience, Psychology and the Cognitive sciences have started to unlock the processes behind some of the faculties most highly valued across all cultures. The bases of, and the links between, memory and imagination, the embodied mind, literary creativity, affect, visualisation and empathetic extension can all be seen from a new angle. This exciting new perspective is challenging but also complementing and enhancing literary criticism of all kinds, and providing new dimensions and new materials for writers and playwrights to explore.

Show/hide contentOpenClose All

Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

Students should be able to


- have insight into the most recent breakthroughs in the brain sciences and their relevance to the study of literature and drama.

- understand the potential, but also the limitations of, an emprical approach to literary study.

- grasp the challenges and benefits entailed in interdisciplinarity.

- comprehend new perspectives on themes central to the analysis of fictional artefacts, such as memory, imagination, visualisation, the “inner voice”, affect, emotional embodiment, transport and empathy.

- feel confident using the basic terminology of the brain sciences, and of basic brain structure.

- be able to bring a scientific perspective into their critical discussion of prose fiction and plays.

- be able to understand the different processes at work as we experience emboodied storytelling (drama) and stories for the eyes/inner ear (reading fiction).

- become aware of the rise of the “neuronovel”, some of its key exponents, and of playwrights and drama companies who are actively engaging with this material.

- understand how the notion of neurodiversity was fortified and augmented by much of the recent research in the brain sciences.

Indicative Module Content:

Week one: Why science has a place in the study of Literature: unexpected links and surprising twists. Introduction and chapter one, Brain, Mind and the Narrative Imagination. (Comer, Taggart).


Week two: Bulletins from the front line. Neurozealots and neurosceptics.
A.S. Byatt, “Fiction informed by Science”, Nature, 434, 294-7
“Observe the neurones” (2006) TLS, September 22nd
Ian Mc Ewan, “Literature, Science and human nature” in J. Gottschall and D.S Wilson (eds) The Literary Animal, 5-19, Northwestern U.P.
R. Tallis (2008) “The Neuroscience delusion:” TLS, April 9th
Excerpts: (1995) A.S. Byatt The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye, Vintage.


Week three: The Scheherazade syndrome. Deep time, oral storytelling and the evolution of narrative and drama.
P.W. Wiessner (2014) “Embers of society: firelight talk among the Ju/hoansi bushmen” Proceedings of the Nat. Acad. Sciences, 111:14027 – 35
Selected passages from R. Kearney (2002) "On Stories", Routledge.


Week four: “The mystery of the reading ape”: how and why literacy developed, empathy, and what happens to our brain when we read fiction.
Selections from: P.C. Hogan The Mind and its Stories, C.U.P. (2003)
S. Dehaene Reading in the Brain: the new science of how we read,
Penguin (2010)
L.Zushine Why we read fiction (2006) Ohio U.P.
Excerpt from novel: J. Crace The Gift of Stones (1988) Scribners


Week five: The view from the stalls. Embodied storytelling, and the ongoing debate about emotion.
B. McConachie Engaging Audiences: A Cognitive Approach to Spectating in the Theatre (2008), Chapter 1, Pages 23-63.
Selection from: P. Davis Shakespeare Thinking (2007) Bloomsbury.
Play : Curious Directive, Return to the Silence (2009) – The Story of Jill Bolte Taylor


Week six: The divided self. The mysteries of the bilateral brain.
Selections from: Jill Bolte Taylor My Stroke of Insight (2009) Penguin.
Iain Mc Gilchrist, The Master and his Emissary (2009) Yale U.P.
Play: Samuel Beckett, Endgame.


Week seven: “Imagination Dead Imagine”. New insights into the workings of the imagination, and mental “schema”.
Selections from: E. Scarry Dreaming by the Book, (2001) Princeton U.P.
P. Mendelsund What we see when we read (2014) Vintage.
Excerpts from W.Golding, The Inheritors, Faber.


Week eight: Mind-reading (so-called “theory of mind”) how we apply it reading fiction, or watching a play. Neurodiversity.
K.Oatley Bookworms versus Nerds, Exposure to fiction versus non-fiction, Divergent Associations with social ability. (2006) in J. Res Personality, pages 694-712
Excerpts from: M. Haddon The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (2003) Cape.


Week nine: Memory – types of memory – autobiographical, procedural, short-term, long-term. The narrative construction of self.
Play: The New Electric Ballroom, Enda Walsh.
Short story: Funes The Memorious, Jorge Luis Borges


Week ten: “I didn’t see that coming”: plot, predictive processing and the pseudo-reality of page and stage. Imagination as memory cast forwards. Recap and conclusion.
Excerpts from Siri Hustvedt Memories of the Future (2018)
Play: Harold Pinter Betrayal

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Specified Learning Activities

60
Autonomous Student Learning

120
Lectures

10
Seminar (or Webinar)

10
Total

200
Approaches to Teaching and Learning:

This module is based around a lecture/seminar model. Students are expected to have watched and read the assigned work before each lecture. This will last for one hour, followed by an hour of discussion and analysis.
This second part of the meeting is crucial because aspects of the material on the module are challenging, and students may not be familiar with some of the concepts and methods utilised in the brain sciences which have gone on to be applied to literature and drama.

It will be important to familiarise the students with fundamental terms and techniques, and to ensure they have a basic understanding of brain structure and function. They also need to appraise the usefulness of scientific research in a literary context, and its limitations. We will address key areas such as memory, imagination, empathy and the embodied mind.

Students will also have time to evaluate and discuss writers and playwrights who are engaging with brain science, placing it up front and centre in their work, exploring such themes as consciousness and free will, trauma, neurodiversity, and the unreliability of memory in the light of new findings. They should gain an understanding of some of the fears, and hopes, attendant upon such an enterprise, and have a chance to critically evaluate the successes, failures and omissions of the artistic response to such material. Students will also be exposed to counterarguments – those of the neurosceptics – who argue that any empirical approach to the arts can only be reductive, and adds nothing to the subtlety and depth of the current critical engagement.

Content generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies should not be presented as your own work in assessments submitted towards a degree in the UCD School of English, Drama and Film. AI- generated content is often factually inaccurate, out-of-date, and includes false or fabricated
sources/citations. If you include factually inaccurate material and/or fabricated citations in your assessments, you will be marked down for inaccurate content, which may result in fail grades. In addition, some content generated by AI tools makes use of authors’ ideas without referencing them, which is a form of plagiarism. If you submit AI-generated content that includes unreferenced material you may be in breach of the UCD Student Plagiarism Policy.




 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade In Module Component Repeat Offered
Quizzes/Short Exercises: short questionnaire / quizzes in SGT four times during the semester, together with overall contribution. Week 3, Week 5, Week 7, Week 9 Graded No

20

 No
Assignment(Including Essay): Mid trimester paper on one of the topics covered to date. Week 5 Graded No

20

 No
Assignment(Including Essay): Final paper, covering one of the major themes in the module. Week 12 Graded No

60

 No

Carry forward of passed components
Yes
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Spring Yes - 2 Hour
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment
• Online automated feedback

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Not yet recorded.

Core text:

"Brain, Mind and the Narrative Imagination"
Chris Comer and Ashley Taggart, Bloomsbury, 2021
ISBN (PB) 978-1-3501-2779-1


Other texts:
"The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye",
A.S.Byatt, Vintage, 1995.

"On Stories", R. Kearney, Routledge, 2002

"The Mind and its Stories"
P.C. Hogan., Cambridge.U.P. (2003)

"Reading in the Brain: the new science of how we read"
S. Dehaene, Penguin, (2010)

"Why we read fiction"
L.Zushine, Ohio U.P. (2006)

"The Gift of Stones"
J. Crace, Scribners, (1988)

"Engaging Audiences: A Cognitive Approach to Spectating in the Theatre"
B. McConachie (2008).

"Shakespeare Thinking"
P. Davis, Bloomsbury (2007)

Play : "Return to the Silence – The Story of Jill Bolte Taylor"
Curious Directive (2009)

Play: "Endgame", Samuel Beckett, (any edition).

Play: "The New Electric Ballroom", Enda Walsh

Play: "Betrayal", Harold Pinter

"Saturday"
Ian McEwan
ISBN: 9780099469681
Vintage (2006)

"My Stroke of Insight"
Jill Bolte Taylor, Penguin (2009)

"The Master and his Emissary"
Iain Mc Gilchrist, Yale U.P. (2009)

"Dreaming by the Book"
E. Scarry , Princeton U.P. (2001)

"What we see when we read"
P. Mendelsund, Vintage (2014)

"The Inheritors"
William Golding, Faber (any edition)

"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time"
M. Haddon Cape (2003)