Darwin and Derrida
Cognitive Literary Theory As a Species of Post-Structuralism
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4376293 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ellen Spolsky (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2002 |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 43-62 |
| Publication date | 2002-03-01 |
| 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 | 10.1215/03335372-23-1-43 |
| OpenAlex | W2042252191 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 17 |
| References cited | 26 |
Rather than denying the insights of post-structuralist theory, literary interpretation and theory with an evolutionary cognitive perspective actually nestles nicely within a central niche of deconstructionist thinking, that is,the critique of representation. What we learn from recent cognitive science is that the meanings of texts are indeed unstable and dependent upon contingent contexts. While theories of neuronal activity can be understood as analogous to the critique of representation, the cognitive evolutionary argument supports Stanley Cavell's counterproposal, that is, that while our representational powers are not ideal they are sufficient. It is possible then to argue further that the very flexibility that destabilizes meaning is not only good enough, it is responsible for our success, such as it has been, in building and revising human cultures
Argument (complex analysis · Evolutionary theory · Representation · Feminist Epistemology and Gender Studies · Rhetoric and Communication Studies · Wittgensteinian philosophy and applications
Universals of Narrative and Their Cognitivist Fortunes (I)
Universals of Narrative and Their Cognitivist Fortunes (II)
Minds on Stage
Evolution, Cognition, and Performance
A Paltry ‘Hoop of Gold’
Introduction
REtrying
Cognitive Literary Historicism
An Embodied View of Misunderstanding inMacbeth
Fiction, Fitness, and Failure
Brains in Literature/Literature in the Brain
Introduction
Recruiting (Once Again) Wittgenstein and Cavell for Reading Literary Texts
Embodied Social Cognition and Comparative Literature
Archetypes Embodied, Then and Now
Cognitive Literary Studies
Toward a Theory of Embodiment for Literature
Semantics and cognition
The Construction of Reality
D arwin's D angerous I dea
Is There a Text in This Class? The Authority of Interpretive Communities
Explaining culture
The Modularity of Mind
How To Do Things With Words
Shakespearean Negotiations
The Structuralist Controversy
What Can She Know
Blindness and Insight. Essays in the Rhetoric of Contemporary Criticism
Satisfying Skepticism
The Bounds of Interpretation
Derrida and Freeplay
The claim of reason
Evolution's Eye
Why and How to Take the Fruit and Leave the Chaff
Elaborated Knowledge
Against Theory 2
Against Theory
| Unique citing works | 17 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,74 |
| Citation span | 2003 - 2025 (23) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 15 |