Abstract
This essay investigates the phenomenon of "embedded" mental states in fiction (i.e., a mental state within a mental state within yet another mental state, as in, "Mrs. Banks wished that Mary Poppins wouldn't know so very much more about the best people than she knew herself"), asking if patterns of embedment manifest themselves differently in children's literature than they do in literature for "grownups." Looking at books for three age groups (nine to twelve, three to seven, and one to two), Zunshine finds significant differences in their respective patterns of embedment, while also arguing that a critical inquiry into complex mental states is not just a cognitive but also a historicist project. Drawing on research in developmental psychology, rhetorical narratology, and cultural history, as well as on digital data mining, this essay seeks to broaden the interdisciplinary and interpretive range of cognitive literary studies.
Highlights
REMEMBER the time when Ben Rogers left off what looked like a really cool game— pretending to be a Missouri steam ship—to take over Tom Sawyer’s chore of whitewashing the fence?
Each of them is structured as a mental state within a mental state within yet another mental state: Tom doesn’t want his friends to realize that he hates whitewashing the fence; he wants them to think that he enjoys it
As Gavaler and Johnson demonstrated, approaching a work of fiction with a category in mind impacts our mindreading effort allocation.[13]. This means that when we talk about the difference between complex embedment of mental states in literary and genre fiction, we would do well to consider a previously unencountered text on its own merits rather than as a member of a category
Summary
REMEMBER the time when Ben Rogers left off what looked like a really cool game— pretending to be a Missouri steam ship—to take over Tom Sawyer’s chore of whitewashing the fence?.
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