Why we read fiction : theory of mind and the novel - Zunshine, Lisa. (Columbus : Ohio State University Press, 2006)
Pt. I. Attributing minds -- 1. Why did Peter Walsh tremble? -- 2. What is mind-reading (also known as theory of mind)? -- 3. Theory of mind, autism, and fiction : four caveats -- 4. "Effortless" mind reading -- 5. Why do we read fiction? -- 6. The novel as cognitive experiment -- 7. Can cognitive science tell us why we are afraid of Mrs. Dalloway? -- 8. The relationship between a "cognitive" analysis of Mrs. Dalloway and the larger field of literary studies -- 9. Woolf, Pinker, and the project of interdisciplinarity -- Pt. II. Tracking minds -- 1. Whose thought is it, anyway? -- 2. Metarepresentational ability and schizophrenia -- 3. Everyday failures of source-monitoring -- 4. Monitoring fictional states of mind -- 5. "Fiction" and "history" -- 6. Tracking minds in Beowulf -- 7. Don Quixote and his progeny -- 8. Source-monitoring, ToM, and the figure of the unreliable narrator -- 9. Source-monitoring and the implied author -- 10. Richardson's Clarissa : the progress of the elated bridegroom -- 11. Nabokov's Lolita : the deadly demon meets and destroys the tenderhearted boy -- Pt. III. Concealing minds -- 1. ToM and the detective novel : what does it take to suspect everybody? -- 2. Why is reading a detective story a lot like lifting weights at the gym? -- 3. Metarepresentationality and some recurrent patterns of the detective story -- 4. A cognitive evolutionary perspective : always historicize! -- Conclusion : why do we read (and write) fiction? -- 1. Authors meet their readers -- 2. Is this why we read fiction? : surely, there is more to it!
Includes bibliographical references (p. 165-192) and index.
Keywords: Fiction; Fiction -- Psychological aspects; Books and reading; Cognitive science