Paul B. Armstrong is a professor of English at Brown University. He is the author of several books, including Conflicting Readings: Variety and Validity in Interpretation and Play and the Politics of Reading: The Social Uses of Modernist Form.

Armstrong's book is a testament to the value of the arts and the humanities since their processes and productions generate ideas that are literally the physical (neurobiological) stuff of which we are made. -- Gregory F. Tague ASEBL Journal How Literature Plays with the Brain: The Neuroscience of Reading and Art is a highly informative and carefully argued book. We recommend a close reading of it. Linguistic and Philosophical Investigations Armstrong's book is a beautiful example of how humanities scholars can accomplish a conversation across the gap between the 'two cultures' without giving up their disciplinary identity, bringing the larger picture to bear on the more particular research of the cognitive sciences. -- Karin Kukkonen Cambridge Quarterly Armstrong finds his inspiration in recent neuroscience... his overview of mirror neuron theory and the controversies that surround it, for example, outdoes in accuracy and judiciousness any other account I have seen among neuroaesthetics and cognitive literary studies. Modern Fiction Studies At present, when so many universities would gleefully discard the study of the arts in the service of a utilitarian turn in higher education, the evidence that Armstrong provides for their vital cognitive function and the coherence with which he presents that evidence is indeed both welcome and timely. Philosophy and Literature s

• Preface1. The Brain and Aesthetic Experience2. How the Brain Learns to Read and the Play of Harmony and Dissonance3. The Neuroscience of the Hermeneutic Circle4. The Temporality of Reading and the Decentered Brain5. The Social Brain and the Paradox of the Alter EgoEpilogueNotesIndex

Paul B. Armstrong is a professor of English at Brown University. He is the author of several books, including Conflicting Readings: Variety and Validity in Interpretation and Play and the Politics of Reading: The Social Uses of Modernist Form.

Armstrong's book is a testament to the value of the arts and the humanities since their processes and productions generate ideas that are literally the physical (neurobiological) stuff of which we are made. -- Gregory F. Tague ASEBL Journal How Literature Plays with the Brain: The Neuroscience of Reading and Art is a highly informative and carefully argued book. We recommend a close reading of it. Linguistic and Philosophical Investigations Armstrong's book is a beautiful example of how humanities scholars can accomplish a conversation across the gap between the 'two cultures' without giving up their disciplinary identity, bringing the larger picture to bear on the more particular research of the cognitive sciences. -- Karin Kukkonen Cambridge Quarterly Armstrong finds his inspiration in recent neuroscience... his overview of mirror neuron theory and the controversies that surround it, for example, outdoes in accuracy and judiciousness any other account I have seen among neuroaesthetics and cognitive literary studies. Modern Fiction Studies At present, when so many universities would gleefully discard the study of the arts in the service of a utilitarian turn in higher education, the evidence that Armstrong provides for their vital cognitive function and the coherence with which he presents that evidence is indeed both welcome and timely. Philosophy and Literature s

• Preface1. The Brain and Aesthetic Experience2. How the Brain Learns to Read and the Play of Harmony and Dissonance3. The Neuroscience of the Hermeneutic Circle4. The Temporality of Reading and the Decentered Brain5. The Social Brain and the Paradox of the Alter EgoEpilogueNotesIndex

Paul B. Armstrong is a professor of English at Brown University. He is the author of several books, including Conflicting Readings: Variety and Validity in Interpretation and Play and the Politics of Reading: The Social Uses of Modernist Form.

Armstrong's book is a testament to the value of the arts and the humanities since their processes and productions generate ideas that are literally the physical (neurobiological) stuff of which we are made. -- Gregory F. Tague ASEBL Journal How Literature Plays with the Brain: The Neuroscience of Reading and Art is a highly informative and carefully argued book. We recommend a close reading of it. Linguistic and Philosophical Investigations Armstrong's book is a beautiful example of how humanities scholars can accomplish a conversation across the gap between the 'two cultures' without giving up their disciplinary identity, bringing the larger picture to bear on the more particular research of the cognitive sciences. -- Karin Kukkonen Cambridge Quarterly Armstrong finds his inspiration in recent neuroscience... his overview of mirror neuron theory and the controversies that surround it, for example, outdoes in accuracy and judiciousness any other account I have seen among neuroaesthetics and cognitive literary studies. Modern Fiction Studies At present, when so many universities would gleefully discard the study of the arts in the service of a utilitarian turn in higher education, the evidence that Armstrong provides for their vital cognitive function and the coherence with which he presents that evidence is indeed both welcome and timely. Philosophy and Literature s

• Preface1. The Brain and Aesthetic Experience2. How the Brain Learns to Read and the Play of Harmony and Dissonance3. The Neuroscience of the Hermeneutic Circle4. The Temporality of Reading and the Decentered Brain5. The Social Brain and the Paradox of the Alter EgoEpilogueNotesIndex