Evolutionary Psychology and Literary Criticism : How to Bring the Two Together, and also Build a Better Model of the Evolved Human Mind

We’ll start by building a model of the mind, working up through three stages:

We’ll start by building a model of the mind, working up through three stages: 1)Narrow-School EP (Evolutionary Psychology): (John Tooby and Leda Cosmides, David Buss, Steven Pinker)

We’ll start by building a model of the mind, working up through three stages: 1)Narrow-School EP (Evolutionary Psychology): (John Tooby and Leda Cosmides, David Buss, Steven Pinker) 2) Broad-School EP: (Dave Geary, Kevin MacDonald, Kim Sterelny)

We’ll start by building a model of the mind, working up through three stages: 1)Narrow-School EP (Evolutionary Psychology): (John Tooby and Leda Cosmides, David Buss, Steven Pinker) 2) Broad-School EP: (Dave Geary, Kevin MacDonald, Kim Sterelny) 3) The Fully Human Mind: (E. O. Wilson, Ellen Dissanayake, Joseph Carroll, Brian Boyd)

The Evolved and Adapted Human Mind

Instincts, Dispositions, Motives: Survival Growing Up Sociality Mating Parenting Kinship, plus side effects: (art, pornography, religion, drugs) Narrow-School EP = The Evolved and Adapted Human Mind

Instincts, Dispositions, Motives: Survival Growing Up Sociality Mating Parenting Kinship, plus side effects: (art, pornography, religion, drugs) Narrow-School EP = General Intelligence: Technology Logistics Social Organization Trade Theology Philosophy History Aesthetics Science Broad-School EP = Narrow-School EP Plus The Evolved and Adapted Human Mind

Instincts, Dispositions, Motives: Survival Growing Up Sociality Mating Parenting Kinship, plus side effects: (art, pornography, religion, drugs) Narrow-School EP = General Intelligence: Technology Logistics Social Organization Trade Theology Philosophy History Aesthetics Science Broad-School EP = Narrow-School EP Plus The Fully Human Mind = Broad-School EP Plus Imagination: Religion Art Music Stories Myths Ideology The Evolved and Adapted Human Mind

General Intelligence and Imagination are part of human nature— as faculties, as motives, and as adaptive functions.

Narrow-School EP Basic Motives

Narrow-School EP Broad-School EP Basic Motives General Intelligence

Narrow-School EP Broad-School EP The Fully Human Mind Basic Motives General Intelligence Imagination

What does all this have to do with literary Criticism?

Here is the first thing that usually happens in evolutionary literary study— and sometimes the only thing that happens.

The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot Human universals : motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics Here is the first thing that usually happens in evolutionary literary study— and sometimes the only thing that happens.

The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot Human universals : motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics What’s missing?

The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot A specific cultural context: social organization, religion, myths, ideologies, artistic traditions, conventional forms Human universals : motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics What’s missing? Well, culture, for one thing.

The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot A specific cultural context: social organization, religion, myths, ideologies, artistic traditions, conventional forms Human universals : motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics Biocultural Complex We’ll call this biocultural critique.

The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot A specific cultural context: social organization, religion, myths, ideologies, artistic traditions, conventional forms Human universals : motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics Biocultural Complex What else is missing?

The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot A specific cultural context: social organization, religion, myths, ideologies, artistic traditions, conventional forms Human universals : motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics Biocultural Complex There’s more to meaning and effect than depicted behavior.

The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot A specific cultural context: social organization, religion, myths, ideologies, artistic traditions, conventional forms Human universals : motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics Biocultural Complex We can build meaning and effect

The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot A specific cultural context: social organization, religion, myths, ideologies, artistic traditions, conventional forms Human universals : motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics Biocultural Complex We can build meaning and effect piece by piece.

The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot The Meaning and Effect of the Story A specific cultural context: social organization, religion, myths, ideologies, artistic traditions, conventional forms Human universals : motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics Biocultural Complex

The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot The Meaning and Effect of the Story The implied author A specific cultural context: social organization, religion, myths, ideologies, artistic traditions, conventional forms Human universals : motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics Biocultural Complex

The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot The Meaning and Effect of the Story The implied author A specific cultural context: social organization, religion, myths, ideologies, artistic traditions, conventional forms Human universals : motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics Biocultural Complex

The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot The Meaning and Effect of the Story The implied author Functional structure of the parts A specific cultural context: social organization, religion, myths, ideologies, artistic traditions, conventional forms Human universals : motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics Biocultural Complex

The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot The Meaning and Effect of the Story The implied author Functional structure of the parts A specific cultural context: social organization, religion, myths, ideologies, artistic traditions, conventional forms Human universals : motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics Biocultural Complex

The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot The Meaning and Effect of the Story The implied author Functional structure of the parts The implied reader A specific cultural context: social organization, religion, myths, ideologies, artistic traditions, conventional forms Human universals : motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics Biocultural Complex

The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot The Meaning and Effect of the Story The implied author Functional structure of the parts The implied reader A specific cultural context: social organization, religion, myths, ideologies, artistic traditions, conventional forms Human universals : motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics Biocultural Complex

The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot The Meaning and Effect of the Story The implied author Functional structure of the parts The implied reader You—the reader, the critic, the person who makes sense of it all A specific cultural context: social organization, religion, myths, ideologies, artistic traditions, conventional forms Human universals : motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics Biocultural Complex

The depicted behaviors: characters, setting, and plot The Meaning and Effect of the Story The implied author Functional structure of the parts The implied reader You—the reader, the critic, the person who makes sense of it all A specific cultural context: social organization, religion, myths, ideologies, artistic traditions, conventional forms Human universals : motives, emotions, personality traits, social dynamics Biocultural Complex Your interpretive and explanatory propositions

Thanks for your Attention.