for Evolutionary Psychology
A Review of William Flesch, Comeuppance: Costly Signaling, Altruistic Punishment, and Other Biological Components of Fiction. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England, 2007. $39.95, 252 pp., ISBN 978-0-674-02631-5.
by Michael A. Winkelman, Department of English, Bowling Green State University, Ohio.
Comeuppance by William Flesch seeks to explain some important aspects of fiction in light of insights from theoretical biology. Flesch proposes that humans enjoy stories because they tend to showcase altruistic behavior, something that certainly exists but whose high costs make it unexpected or difficult to rationalize. Put another way, though individuals possess selfish genes, which accounts for nepotism or parental sacrifices, they also exhibit a natural disposition to Read more “Whence Poetic Justice?”