The Elusive Brain: Literary Experiments in the Age of Neuroscience (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780300221176)

Featuring a foreword by renowned neuroscientist Joseph E. LeDoux, The Elusive Brain is an illuminating, comprehensive survey of contemporary literature's engagement with neuroscience. This fascinating book explores how literature interacts with neuroscience to provide a better understanding of the brain's relationship to the self.

Jason Tougaw surveys the work of contemporary writers--including Oliver Sacks, Temple Grandin, Richard Powers, Siri Hustvedt, and Tito Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay--analyzing the way they experiment with literary forms to frame new views of the immaterial experiences that compose a self. He argues that their work offers a necessary counterbalance to a wider cultural neuromania that seeks out purely neural explanations for human behaviors as varied as reading, economics, empathy, and racism. Building on recent scholarship, Tougaw's evenhanded account will be an original contribution to the growing field of neuroscience and literature.

Author: Jason Tougaw
ISBN-10: 0300221177
ISBN-13: 9780300221176
Publisher: Yale University Press
Language: English
Published: 04/24/2018
Pages: 288
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 9.40h x 6.40w x 1.10d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 11/01/2018