ABSTRACT
A review of neuroscientific and psychological emotion models from William James’s peripheral feedback theory to Lisa Feldman Barrett’s constructed emotion theory indicates how greatly scientific models that ground emotion in human bodies coincide with fiction writers’ advice on how to craft moving scenes. Perhaps because of the strong evidence for emotions’ embodiment, many literary scholars inspired by neuroscience have thus far approached emotions indirectly, examining how literary texts cue readers to simulate characters’ sensations or alter their basic functions such as breathing. Future research promises to be most fruitful if creative writers’ craft analyses, literary scholars’ interpretive skills, and scientists’ experimental designs can be combined as equally valid tools for examining how human emotions work. Literary craft analysis, which explores how writers create artistic effects, offers a rich resource for neuroscientists who study emotions.
