The Emergence of Neuroscience and the German Novel: Poetics of the Brain [Paperback]

The Emergence of Neuroscience and the German Novel: Poetics of the Brain revises the dominant narrative about the distinctive psychological inwardness and introspective depth of the German novel by reinterpreting the novels development from the perspective of the nascent discipline of neuroscience, the emergence of which is coterminous with the rise of the novel form. In particular, it asks how the novels formal propertiesstylistic, narrative, rhetorical, and figurativecorrelate with the formation of a neuroscientific discourse, and how the former may have assisted, disrupted, and/or intensified the medical articulation of neurological concepts. This study poses the question: how does this rapidly evolving field emerge in the context of nineteenth century cultural practices and what were the conditions for its emergence in the German-speaking world specifically? Where did neuroscience begin and how did it broaden in scope? And most crucially, to what degree does it owe its existence to literature?

1. Introduction.- 2. Dissecting the Subject: Brain Localization in The Nightwatches of Bonaventura.- 3. Fictions Scientific Double: Hallucinations in Jean Pauls Siebenk?s.- 4. A Tale from the Right Hemisphere: Amusia and Aphasia in Franz Grillparzers The Poor Musician.- 5. Symmetry as Narrative Structure: OCD in Gottfried Kellers A Village Romeo and Juliet.- 6. Writing Against Forgetting: Korsakoffs Syndrome in Theodor Fontanes On Tangled Paths.- 7. Allegory, Modernity, Learning to See: Cytoarchitectonics in Rainer Maria Rilkes The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge.- 8. Reading Gestures: Body Schema Disorder and Schizophrenia in Franz Kafkas Prose.