I’ve been reading the introduction to Mary Thomas Crane’s Shakespeare’s Brain, and I love, love, love cognitive theory. It’s the first theory that feels right, or makes sense, or works in concert with the ways that I think, or however you want to say it. She does the complicated work of justifying the use of cognitive science as a means for describing/interpreting literature, situates it among all the big hitters--Foucault, Althusser, Derrida, Lacan, and others--and proposes specific ways to apply cognitive theory to literature. Here’s a shout out to Dr. Rubba for exposing me to linguistic analysis of literature in general, and cognitive theory in particular. (And for telling me that I should go get a PhD.)
I had a little bit of confirmation that I'm doing the right thing by working on a PhD: I stayed up reading literary theory until 1am BECAUSE I WANTED TO! I was so enthralled, I couldn't put it down.
What crazy things have you done that show you have that crazy-making, magical, mystical, brainiac relationship with your PhD subject?
1 comment:
When was that book published? I'll have to look into it! As for me, I've realized that, at bed time, it's not good for me to read my dissertation stuff because I get all excited and wired, and it's hard for me to sleep.
Congrats on finding a theory you like!
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