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Title Graphing Jane Austen : the evolutionary basis of literary meaning / Joseph Carroll [and others]
Edition 1st ed
Published New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2012

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Description 1 online resource (ix, 305 pages) : illustrations
Series Cognitive studies in literature and performance
Cognitive studies in literature and performance.
Contents PART I: METHODS AND RESULTS -- A User's Manual -- Agonistic Structure Differentiated by Sex -- PART II: IMPLICATIONS -- Determinate Meanings -- Sexual Politics -- Adaptive Function -- PART III: CASE STUDIES -- Jane Austen, by the Numbers -- Indifferent Tragedy in The Mayor of Casterbridge
Introduction -- Methods and results. A user's manual; Agonistic structure differentiated by sex -- Implications. Determinate meanings; Sexual politics; Adaptive function -- Case studies. Jane Austen, by the numbers; Indifferent tragedy in The mayor of Casterbridge -- Conclusion -- Glossary -- Appendices. A link to the questionnaire; Characters for whom protocols were completed; The distribution of characters in sets; Notes on statistical procedures; Results of factor analysis for emotional responses, motives, and mate selection; Statistically significant results
Summary Building on findings in the evolutionary human sciences, we constructed a model of human nature and used it to illuminate the evolved psychology that shapes the organization of characters in nineteenth-century British novels (Austen to Forster). Hundreds of readers gave numerical ratings to the attributes of hundreds of characters and also rated their own emotional responses to the characters. We draw conclusions about the determinacy of literary meaning, interactions between gender and the ethos of community, and the adaptive function of morally polarized characterization. The broad patterns in the novels provide a framework for two case studies: the novels of Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Subject Austen, Jane, 1775-1817 -- Characters.
Hardy, Thomas, 1840-1928 -- Characters
SUBJECT Austen, Jane, 1775-1817 fast
Hardy, Thomas, 1840-1928 fast
Subject Characters and characteristics in literature -- Statistics
English fiction -- 19th century -- History and criticism
English fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism
Human behavior in literature.
Reader-response criticism.
LITERARY CRITICISM -- European -- English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh.
Characters and characteristics
Characters and characteristics in literature
English fiction
Human behavior in literature
Reader-response criticism
Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Statistics
Form Electronic book
Author Carroll, Joseph, 1949-
ISBN 9781137002419
1137002417
Other Titles Evolutionary basis of literary meaning