Evolutionary and Neurocognitive Approaches to Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts

Describes fresh approaches to aesthetics, creativity and psychology of the arts, approaching these topics from a point of view that is biological or related to biology. This book begins with a consideration of ten theories on the evolutionary function of specific arts such as music and literature.

Colin Martindale, Paul Locher, Vladimir Petrov, Arnold Berleant

Preface Colin Martindale Chapter 1 What Art is and What Art Does: An Overview of Contemporary Evolutionary Hypotheses Ellen Dissanayake Chapter 2 An Evolutionary Model of Artistic and Musical Creativity Gregory J. Feist Chapter 3 The Adaptive Function of Literature Joseph Carroll Chapter 4 Does Reading Literature Make People Happy? Willie van Peer, Alexandra Menties and Jan Auracher Chapter 5 Cognitive Poetics and Poetry Recital Reuven Tsur Chapter 6 The Alphabet and Creativity: Implications for East Asia William C. Hannas Chapter 7 Creativity, Gender, History, and Authors of Fantasy for Children Ravenna Helson Chapter 8 Trends in the Creative Content of Scientific Journals: Good, but Not as Good! Robert Hogenraad Chapter 9 The Information Approach to Human Sciences, Especially Aesthetics Vladimir M. Petrov Chapter 10 Art and Cognition: Cognitive Processes in Art Appreciation Helmut Leder and Benno Belke Chapter 11 Literary Creativity: A Neuro-Psychoanalytic View Norman N. Holland Chapter 12 A Neural-Network Theory of Beauty Colin Martindale Chapter 13 Neural Correlates of Creative Cognition Oshin Vartanian and Vinod Goel Chapter 14 Creativity, DNA, and Cerebral Blood Flow Rosa Aurora Chávez-Eakle Chapter 15 Artistic Creativity and Affective Disorders: Are They Connected? Dennis K. Kinney and Ruth L. Richards