ABSTRACT
Joseph Carroll first published on the subject as far back as 1995, and by 2002 Steven Pinker could claim that "within the academy, a growing number of mavericks are looking to evolutionary psychology and cognitive science in an effort to re-establish human nature as the center of any understanding of the arts". Fred Davis insists on precision in using the term nostalgia. Tom Panelas' point is of special importance to our chapter's focus on how and why the interest in evolutionary psychology has also appeared in relation specifically to childhood and children's language and children's literature and media. Brian Boyd's evolutionary account is set against the kind of historical reading he claims to be the standard textual approach, which he names "Cultural Critique". The child's investment in intention joins its socially constructive pleasure in play as occupying a position behind and before narrative. Creativity is a matter of strategy, a rational decision to engage that which already exists.
