ABSTRACT:
We live in other people’s heads: avidly, reluctantly, consciously, unawares,
mistakenly, inescapably. Cognitive scientists call the evolved adaptation that makes
us attribute mental states, such as thoughts, desires, and intentions, to ourselves and
to other people, theory of mind or mind-reading. I take research on theory of mind as
a starting point to explore patterns of “sociocognitive complexity” in fiction—that is,
representations of mental states embedded within other mental states. Using examples
ranging from "The Miller’s Tale,” Robinson Crusoe, and Tom Jones to The Da Vinci Code,
Teen Vogue, and the comic-book version of Pride and Prejudice, I discuss the roles
of ideology, genre, and individual writing style in the construction of sociocognitive
complexity, as well its cultural packaging.
Minds at Work
Lisa Zunshine is a Bush-Holbrook Professor of English at the University of Kentucky, Lexington specializing in 18th-Century British Literature and Cognitive Cultural Studies. This lecture on Theory of Mind will analyze examples of "sociocognitive complexity" in fiction and popular media.
Co-sponsored by the French, Comparative Literature, and English Departments.
