ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores theories of the mind in the analysis of the seven authors. Rather than interpreting the literary text through the filter of a preconceived theory, the analyses in the book start with the literary text itself, in order to examine the particular model of the conscious and unconscious mind it presents to us. The book then reflects this literary model back onto the dominant theories of mind in the period, as well as on to the other literary models created by the other authors. A work of literature creates its own universe, within which the writer has a certain licence to set the rules. In real life, it remains an open question whether, say, male and female minds are indistinguishable at a preconscious level, or whether the mind's unspoken thoughts may be perceived by an omniscient deity.
