Useful Fictions is popular PDF and ePub book, written by Michael Austin in 2011-01-01, it is a fantastic choice for those who relish reading online the Literary Criticism genre. Let's immerse ourselves in this engaging Literary Criticism book by exploring the summary and details provided below. Remember, Useful Fictions can be Read Online from any device for your convenience.
Useful Fictions Book PDF Summary
"We tell ourselves stories in order to live," Joan Didion observed inThe White Album. Why is this? Michael Austin asks, inUseful Fictions. Why, in particular, are human beings, whose very survival depends on obtaining true information, so drawn to fictional narratives? After all, virtually every human culture reveres some form of storytelling. Might there be an evolutionary reason behind our species' need for stories? Drawing on evolutionary biology, anthropology, narrative theory, cognitive psychology, game theory, and evolutionary aesthetics, Austin develops the concept of a "useful fiction," a simple narrative that serves an adaptive function unrelated to its factual accuracy. In his work we see how these useful fictions play a key role in neutralizing the overwhelming anxiety that humans can experience as their minds gather and process information. Rudimentary narratives constructed for this purpose, Austin suggests, provided a cognitive scaffold that might have become the basis for our well-documented love of fictional stories. Written in clear, jargon-free prose and employing abundant literary examplesfrom the Bible toOne Thousand and One Arabian NightsandDon QuixotetoNo ExitAustin's work offers a new way of understanding the relationship between fiction and evolutionary processesand, perhaps, the very origins of literature.
Detail Book of Useful Fictions PDF
- Author : Michael Austin
- Release : 01 January 2011
- Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
- ISBN : 9780803232976
- Genre : Literary Criticism
- Total Page : 193 pages
- Language : English
- PDF File Size : 12,9 Mb
If you're still pondering over how to secure a PDF or EPUB version of the book Useful Fictions by Michael Austin, don't worry! All you have to do is click the 'Get Book' buttons below to kick off your Download or Read Online journey. Just a friendly reminder: we don't upload or host the files ourselves.
