Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-lpg2g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-15T21:14:45.785Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Secret Life of Fiction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Lisa Zunshine
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the 'Save PDF' action button.

A troubling feature of the common core state standards initiative (CCSSI) for english language arts (ELA) is its failure to recognize literature as a catalyst of complex thinking in students. According to the CCSSI, to “prepare all students for success in college, career, and life,” children must read texts “more complex” than “stories and literature” (“English Language Arts Standards”). The assumption that “stories” are inferior to nonfiction has a long tradition in Western culture; tapping into that prejudice is easy, and no proof seems to be required.

Information

Type
Theories and Methodologies
Information
PMLA , Volume 130 , Issue 3 , May 2015, pp. 724 - 731
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 2015

References

Works Cited

Abbott, H. Porter. Real Mysteries: Narrative and the Unknowable. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 2013. Print.Google Scholar
Astington, Janet Wilde, and Baird, Jodie A. “Introduction: Why Language Matters.” Why Language Matters for Theory of Mind. Ed. Astington, and Baird, . New York: Oxford UP, 2005. 3–25. Print.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xueqin, Cao. [Dream of the Red Chamber]. Web. 29 Sept. 2014. <http://cls.hs.yzu.edu.tw/hlm/read/text/body.ASP?CHNO=005>..>Google Scholar
Xueqin, Cao. The Golden Days. Trans. Hawkes, David. New York: Penguin, 1973. Print. Vol. 1 of Story of the Stone.Google Scholar
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects. Common Core State Standards Initiative. Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2 June 2010. Web. 25 Mar. 2015.Google Scholar
Cutting, Alexandra L., and Dunn, Judy. “Theory of Mind, Emotion Understanding, Language and Family Background: Individual Differences and Interrelations.” Child Development 70.4 (1999): 853–65. Print.Google Scholar
de Rosnay, Marc, Pons, Francisco, Harris, Paul L., and Morrell, Julian M. B. “A Lag between Understanding False Belief and Emotion Attribution in Young Children: Relationships with Linguistic Ability and Mothers' Mental State Language.” British Journal of Developmental Psychology 22 (2004): 197–218. Print.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
“English Language Art Standards.” Common Core State Standards Initiative. Common Core State Standards Initiative, n.d. Web. 21 May 2015.Google Scholar
Fielding, Henry. Tom Jones. Ed. Bender, John and Stern, Simon. New York: Oxford UP, 1996. Print.Google Scholar
Forster, E. M. Howards End. New York: Vintage, 1921. Print.Google Scholar
Graves, Michael F., Brunetti, Gerald J., and Slater, Wayne H. “The Reading Vocabularies of Primary Grade Children of Varying Geographic and Social Backgrounds.” New Inquiries in Reading Research and Instruction. Ed. Niles, Jerome A. and Harris, Larry A. Rochester: Natl. Reading Conf., 1982. 99–104. Print. Yearbook of the Natl. Reading Conf. 31.Google Scholar
Harris, Paul L., de Rosnay, Marc, and Pons, Francisco. “Language and Children's Understanding of Mental States.” Current Directions in Psychological Science 14.2 (2005): 69–73. Print.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, Claire, White, Naomi, and Ensor, Rosie. “How Does Talking about Thoughts, Desires, and Feelings Foster Children's Socio-cognitive Development? Mediators, Moderators and Implications for Intervention.” Children and Emotion: New Insights into Developmental Affective Science. Ed. Lagattuta, Kristin Hansen. Basel: Karger, 2014. 95–105. Print. Contributions to Human Development 26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyne, Raphael. “Shakespeare, Perception and Theory of Mind.” Paragraph 37.1 (2014): 79–95. Web. 21 May 2015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Naigles, Letitia R. “Manipulating the Input: Studies in Mental Verb Acquisition.” Perception, Cognition, and Language: Essays in Honor of Henry and Lila Gleitman. Ed. Landau, Barbara, Sabini, John, Jonides, John, and Newport, Elissa L. Cambridge: MIT P, 2000. 245–74. Print.Google Scholar
Palmer, Alan. Fictional Minds. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 2004. Print.Google Scholar
Peskin, Joan, and Astington, Janet Wilde. “The Effects of Adding Metacognitive Language to Story Texts.” Cognitive Development 19 (2004): 253–73. Print.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterson, Carole, Jesso, Beulah, and McCabe, Allyssa. “Encouraging Narratives in Preschoolers: An Intervention Study.” Journal of Child Language 26 (1999): 49–67. Print.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Phillips, Natalie M. “Literary Neuroscience and History of Mind: An Interdisciplinary fMRI Study of Attention and Jane Austen.” Zunshine, Oxford Handbook 55–81.Google Scholar
Plantinga, Carl. “Facing Others: Close-Ups of Faces in Narrative Film and in The Silence of the Lambs.” Zunshine, Oxford Handbook 291–312.Google Scholar
Polvinen, Merja. “Engaged Reading as Mental Work: Reflections on Teaching Cognitive Narratology.” Interdisciplinary Literary Studies 16.1 (2014): 145–59. Print.Google Scholar
Rabinowitz, Peter J. “Toward a Narratology of Cognitive Flavor.” Zunshine, Oxford Handbook 85–103.Google Scholar
Rabinowitz, Peter J., and Bancroft, Corinne. “Euclid at the Core: Recentering Literary Education.” Style 48.1 (2014): 1–34. Print.Google Scholar
Richardson, Alan. The Neural Sublime: Cognitive Theories and Romantic Texts. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2010. Print.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richner, Elizabeth S., and Nicolopoulou, Ageliki. “Teacher-Child Interactional Styles and Their Impact on Peer Interactions: Implications for Social Understanding.” Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development. Tampa, FL. 2003. Address.Google Scholar
Robbins, Claudia, and Ehri, Linnea C. “Reading Storybooks to Kindergartners Helps Them Learn New Vocabulary Words.” Journal of Educational Psychology 86 (1994): 54–64. Print.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saussy, Haun. “Unspoken Sentences: A Thought-Sequence in Chapter 32 of Honglou Meng .” Studies in Chinese Language and Culture in Honour of Christoph Harbsmeier. Ed. Anderl, Christoph and Eifring, Halvor. Oslo: Hermes, 2006. 427–33. Print.Google Scholar
Scholes, Robert, Phelan, James, and Kellog, Robert. The Nature of Narrative: Revised and Expanded. 40th anniversary ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2006. Print.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Jeff. “Filmmakers as Folk Psychologists: How Filmmakers Exploit Cognitive Biases as an Aspect of Cinematic Narration, Characterization, and Spectatorship.” Zunshine, Oxford Handbook 483–501.Google Scholar
Spolsky, Ellen. “Narrative as Nourishment.” Toward a Cognitive Theory of Narrative Acts. Ed. Aldama, Frederick Luis. Austin: U of Texas P, 2010. 37–60. Print.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vermeule, Blakey. Why Do We Care about Literary Characters? Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2010. Print.Google Scholar
Vessel, Edward A., Starr, G. Gabrielle, and Rubin, Nava. “Art Reaches Within: Aesthetic Experience, the Self, and the Default Mode Network.” Frontiers in Neuroscience 7.258 (2013): n. pag. Web. 25 Mar. 2015.Google Scholar
Vincent, J. Keith. “Sex on the Mind: Queer Theory Meets Cognitive Theory.” Zunshine, Oxford Handbook 199–221.Google Scholar
Whalen, Douglas H., Zunshine, Lisa, and Holquist, Michael. “Theory of Mind and Embedding of Perspective: A Psychological Test of a Literary ‘Sweet Spot.”‘ Scientific Study of Literature 22.2 (2012): 301–15. Print.Google Scholar
White, Thomas G., Michael F. Graves, and Wayne H. Slater. “Growth of Reading Vocabulary in Diverse Elementary Schools: Decoding and Word Meaning.” Journal of Educational Psychology 82.2 (1990): 281–90. Web. 21 May 2015.Google Scholar
Zamjatin, Evgenij. M [We]. Moscow: ACT, 2008. Print.Google Scholar
Zunshine, Lisa. “From the Social to the Literary: Approaching Cao Xueqin's The Story of the Stone (Honglou meng ) from a Cognitive Perspective.” Zunshine, Oxford Handbook 176–96.Google Scholar
Zunshine, Lisa. The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Literary Studies. Ed. Zunshine, . New York: Oxford UP, 2015. Print.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zunshine, Lisa. “Style Brings In Mental States: A Response to Alan Palmer's ‘Social Minds.‘” Style 45.2 (2011): 349–56. Print.Google Scholar
Zunshine, Lisa. “Theory of Mind as a Pedagogical Tool.” Interdisciplinary Literary Studies 16.1 (2014): 89–109. Print.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zunshine, Lisa. “Why Fiction Does It Better.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Chronicle of Higher Educ., 9 Dec. (2013): B4-5. Print.Google Scholar
Zunshine, Lisa. Why We Read Fiction: Theory of Mind and the Novel. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 2006. Print.Google Scholar