Measuring the Stomach of a Gentleman with the Heart-Mind of a Pipsqueak
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4375947 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Haiyan Lee (0000-0001-6324-8896, Stanford University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 41 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 205-222 |
| Publication date | 2020-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Poetics Today (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0333-5372 • E-ISSN: 1527-5507 |
| Publisher | Duke University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1215/03335372-8172528 |
| OpenAlex | W3037347435 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 14 |
This article seeks to historicize the affinity between narrative fiction and the cognitive function known as theory of mind. The author believes this affinity holds true mostly in modern commercial societies structured by stranger sociality, cosmopolitanism, and social mobility. Elsewhere, both temporally and culturally, theory of mind is certainly present and useful but not always prized in social life and does not animate expressive culture to the same extent. Such societies are structured by kinship sociality that presumes relatively stable identity and valorizes guileless "characters" who effortlessly embody socially shared values. The hierarchical structures of these societies also place a greater premium on theory of mind for subordinates than for the powerful, hence attaching a tinge of opprobrium to its exercise. In literature this translates into the moral ambivalence concerning "crafty" figures. The author presents her arguments with reference primarily to premodern Chinese literary classics. For comparative purposes she also brings into discussion the Sanskrit play Shakuntala and a King Solomon legend. In the coda, she asks if the importance of theory of mind is overstated when in social life we resort to a much wider range of folk psychological heuristics
Aesthetics · Ambivalence · Epistemology · Kinship · Linguistics · Narrative · Postmodernism · Social group · Social identity theory · Social science · Social theory · Sociality · Sociology · Anthropology · Emotions and Moral Behavior · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology
Ethical Life
Social Class, Contextualism, and Empathic Accuracy
Domination and the Arts of Resistance
How to Do Things with Fictions
Domination and the Arts of Resistance
The Anthropology of Intentions
Revolution of the Heart
Knowing Minds is a Matter of Authority
The Cultural Construction of Emotion in Rural Chinese Social Life
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2024 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |