Building on the latest groundbreaking research into the adaptive origins and
functionality of the brain, Renaissance English Culture through a Scientific Lens offers
fresh, eye-opening ways to understand its subject better. The modern synthesis in
evolutionary biology and the cognitive revolution in psychology have given us the tools to
generate an empirical, consilient science of human nature; explored herein are significant
ramifications of these discoveries for work in the humanities. This book maintains that our
capacity to make sense of early modern British literature and the society that sustained it
can be substantially enhanced by making use of this emerging knowledge in the life
sciences.
At a moment when everyone recognizes that the humanities are facing critical
challenges both within and beyond academia, the biopoetic approach modeled and applied
here advances perhaps the last, best hope for reinvigorating these fields and making the
study of this fascinating period worthwhile, relevant, and interesting again.
The interpretive methodologies utilized throughout this work bring together
traditional practices within historiography and literary studies, particularly an emphasis on
close attention to textual evidence, but they attempt to broaden and deepen matters by
drawing from findings in the life sciences. Each section provides explanations aimed at
non-scientists of the underlying biology and cognitive neuroscience, and arguments for
their applicability are explicitly presented. Moreover, this work on dramas by Shakespeare,
Tudor politics, and lyric poetry is meant to suggest potentially fruitful avenues of
exploration for those interested in comprehending related fields.
This study also invokes contemporary texts when it seems fruitful to do so. These
include twenty-first-century writings inspired by merry old England such as Carol Ann
Duffy’s elegy “Richard” about King Richard III and Hilary Mantel’s three Wolf Hall novels
about Thomas Cromwell. There are also comparisons between Queen Elizabeth I and the
popular teen satire Mean Girls in chapter 5, and in the conclusion, an in-depth engagement
with how and why Sir Philip Sidney’s Defence of Poetry might still have something to say
concerning debates about the usefulness of the liberal arts in schools nowadays.
Part One investigates, from a Darwinian perspective, fundamental, timeless matters
of love, friendship, and jealousy as they are presented in Shakespearean drama. Part Two
focuses on the Tudor monarchy. It includes a chapter about Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall
trilogy about Thomas Cromwell and his rise and fall at the Henrician court, which is
examined with recourse to cognitive narratology, something that is revealing how people
actually read and why immersion in storyworlds is so indispensable and beneficial. Next,
in following chapters, the fortunate reign of Queen Elizabeth I is treated from the
perspectives of primatology, anthropology, deep history, and probability—showing that
ingrained, hardball Machiavellian politics predate humankind, and that a great deal of good
luck ultimately underpinned her achievements. Part Three examines Metaphysical and
Cavalier poetry, including verse by John Donne and Andrew Marvell. In light of recent
discoveries in neurolinguistics about how the brain processes figurative language, it
considers their sublime ability to dream up memorable metaphors. Also pursued are
profound, unexpected connections between scientific and poetic ways of seeing. The
conclusion contends that analyses along such biocultural, interdisciplinary lines can help
fulfill the project of Renaissance humanism and can help restore the liberal arts to their
squandered flagship position in education, and beyond.