Entranced by story : brain, tale and teller, from infancy to old age / Hugh Crago.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Crago, Hugh, 1946- author.

Series:

Children's literature and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Literature--Psychology.

Literature.

Children's stories--History and criticism.

Children's stories.

Children--Books and reading.

Children.

Fiction--History and criticism.

Fiction.

Storytelling.

Psychoanalysis and literature.

Physical Description:

xv, 269 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York ; London : Routledge, 2014.

Summary:

We live in a world of stories; yet few of us pause to ask what stories actually are, why we consume them so avidly, and what they do for story makers and their audiences. This book focuses on the experiences that good stories generate: feelings of purposeful involvement, elevation, temporary loss of self, vicarious emotion, and relict of tension. The author examines what drives writers to create stories and why readers tall under their spell; why some children grow up to be writers; and how the capacity for creating and comprehending stories develops from infancy right through into old age. Entranced by Story applies recent research on brain function to literary examples ranging from the Iliad and Wuthering Heights, to Harold and the Purple Crayon, providing a ground-breaking exploration of the biological and neurological basis of the literary experience. Blending research,, theory and biographical anecdote, the author shows how it is the unique structure of the human brain, with its layering of sophisticated cognitive capacities upon archaic, emotion-driven functions, which best explains the mystery of story. Book jacket.

Contents:

Chapter 1 'Bothe Blysse and Blunder': How Stories Begin 15

Chapter 2 CA Hole in the World': Self and Story in the Preschool Years 35

Chapter 3 'A Place of Greater Safety': Stories in Middle Childhood 59

Chapter 4 The Age of Romance: Self and Story in Adolescence 93

Chapter 5 'I Would Build That Dome in Air': Story Making in Young Adulthood 121

Chapter 6 Remembering, Repeating and Foreshadowing: Midlife and Memory 155

Chapter 7 Light at the End of the Tunnel: Storytelling in Old Age 187.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 253-260) and index.

ISBN:

9780415741705

041574170X

OCLC:

863684349