HON-H 303 Minds, Brains, and the Contemporary Novel

How does the contemporary novel relate to contemporary psychology?  A 2009 essay called “The Rise of the Neuro-Novel” proposes that advances in brain science have had a significant effect on the way today’s fiction portrays human interiority, behavior, and decision-making.  This class puts that theory to the test by examining a range of recent novels and memoirs interested in these issues, from a mystery novel narrated by a man with Tourette syndrome to the story of an amnesiac who painstakingly tries to rebuild a single scene from his former life.

Texts will include: Ian McEwan, Enduring Love; Jonathan Lethem, Motherless Brooklyn; Helen Oyeyemi, The Icarus Girl; Tom McCarthy, Remainder; Myla Goldberg, Bee Season; Aimee Bender, An Invisible Sign of My Own; Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time; and background readings from contemporary philosophers, scientists, historians of science and medicine, literary scholars, and doctors that ask, Are we our brains?  What is a self?  Do we have free will?  What does happiness look like?  What is lost, and gained, when we choose to describe psychological suffering through the language of body chemistry?

This class meets with ENG-L 373.