Author Description

This title considers the advantages of describing fictions as governed by a set of social contracts. It combines current cognitive research with attention to the historical context of works of imagination to argue against the claim that fictions corrupt clear thinking and provide, at best, inert pleasures. The chapters explore the different ways creative work in media from statues to stage plays helps to maintain cultural homeostasis. Like the social contracts of law, language, kinship, and money, the social contracts of fiction are constructed and continually revised within communities. Embodiment and its entailments -- Lyrics and their frames -- Genre change and narrative recovery (maybe) -- Intelligence on a communal scale: an enriched theory of distributed cognition -- Distributed misunderstanding -- Affording justice through sinderesis: an early modern embodiment theory -- Balance and imbalance -- The skepticism of grotesques: between the known and the unknown -- Detach and reuse -- Conclusion and the next questions. Ellen Spolsky. Includes bibliographical references and index.