ABSTRACT
The main use of neurophysiological research in literary study has been very general (e.g., in debates over whether literature is socially produced). 1 This is unfortunate, as brain studies may bear directly and in detail on any topic treated in the preceding chapters (see, for example, Martindale, “Biological,” on creativity). Clearly, I cannot cover all these topics and all the relevant research in a single chapter. At the same time, I do not want to confine the chapter to generalities. I will therefore frame the following discussion in terms of one issue we have been considering, an issue for which recent brain research is, I believe, particularly consequential—literary emotion. I will begin by questioning some conclusions of the preceding chapter, including the conclusions of my own earlier work on emotion and memory. Though this discussion is focused on a particular issue, it should serve to illustrate how neurobiological research may enter into other areas of theory and criticism in literature and the arts.
