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OverviewWith Comeuppance , William Flesch delivers the freshest, most generous thinking about the novel since Walter Benjamin wrote on the storyteller and Wayne C. Booth on the rhetoric of fiction. In clear and engaging prose, Flesch integrates evolutionary psychology into literary studies, creating a new theory of fiction in which form and content flawlessly intermesh.Fiction, Flesch contends, gives us our most powerful way of making sense of the social world. Comeuppance begins with an exploration of the appeal of gossip and ends with an account of how we can think about characters and care about them as much as about persons we know to be real. We praise a storyteller who contrives a happy or at least an appropriate ending, and fault the writer who refuses us one. Flesch uses Darwinian theory to show how fiction satisfies our desire to see the good vindicated and the wicked get their comeuppance. He conveys the danger and excitement of reading fiction with nimble intelligence and provides wide reference to stories both familiar and little known.Flesch has given us a book that is sure to claim a central place in the discussion of literature and the humanities. Full Product DetailsAuthor: William FleschPublisher: Harvard University Press Imprint: Harvard University Press Dimensions: Width: 15.50cm , Height: 2.40cm , Length: 23.50cm Weight: 0.532kg ISBN: 9780674026315ISBN 10: 0674026314 Pages: 264 Publication Date: 01 January 2008 Audience: Professional and scholarly , Professional & Vocational Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Out of Print Availability: In Print Limited stock is available. It will be ordered for you and shipped pending supplier's limited stock. Table of ContentsReviewsI admired William Flesch's examination of fiction and evolutionary biology, in Comeuppance: Costly Signalling, Altruistic Punishment and Other Biological Components of Fiction , not least because Flesch, a young professor at Brandeis, is aware of the limits of the application of biology to aesthetics. -- James Wood New Yorker blog (12/15/2008) I admired William Flesch's examination of fiction and evolutionary biology, in Comeuppance: Costly Signalling, Altruistic Punishment and Other Biological Components of Fiction , not least because Flesch, a young professor at Brandeis, is aware of the limits of the application of biology to aesthetics.--James Wood New Yorker blog (12/15/2008) Author InformationWilliam Flesch is Professor of English Literature at Brandeis University. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |