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Pamela and Creative Cognition
Author(s) -
JONES WENDY
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal for eighteenth‐century studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.129
H-Index - 11
eISSN - 1754-0208
pISSN - 1754-0194
DOI - 10.1111/j.1754-0208.2011.00375.x
Subject(s) - creativity , generative grammar , argument (complex analysis) , poetry , cognition , recreation , cognitive science , focus (optics) , psychology , character (mathematics) , process (computing) , epistemology , sociology , cognitive psychology , philosophy , literature , social psychology , art , computer science , linguistics , neuroscience , political science , biochemistry , chemistry , physics , optics , geometry , law , operating system , mathematics
This article challenges the belief that the mind as a creative, generative entity belongs exclusively to a poetic rather than a novelistic tradition. Pamela offers a general model of creativity through Mr B.'s recreation of his character. This process accords with the findings of cognitive science that creativity has its source in emotion as well as cognition. This argument is embedded in a larger claim, that novels often give portrayals of human nature that are true to neuroscience's view of how the brain works, to suggest that a biocultural focus might enable literary studies to pursue important new directions.