Why we read fiction: theory of mind and the novel

Pt. 1. Attributing minds. Why did Peter Walsh tremble?

What is mind-reading (also known as theory of mind)?

Theory of mind, autism, and fiction : four caveats

"Effortless" mind-reading

Why do we read fiction?

The novel as a cognitive experiment

Can cognitive science tell us why we are afraid of Mrs. Dalloway?

The relationship between a "cognitive" analysis of Mrs. Dalloway and the larger field of literary studies

Woolf, Pinker, and the project of interdisciplinarity

Pt. 2. Tracking minds. Whose thought is it, anyway?

Metarepresentational ability and schizophrenia

Everyday failures of source-monitoring

Monitoring fictional states of mind

"Fictional" and "history"

Tracking minds in Beowulf

Don Quixote and his progeny

Source-monitoring, ToM, and the figure of the unreliable narrator

Source-monitoring and the implied author

Richardson's Clarissa : the progress of the elated bridegroom

Nabokov's Lolita : the deadly demon meets and destroys the tenderhearted boy

Pt. 3. Concealing minds. ToM and the detective novel : what does it take to suspect everybody?

Why is reading a detective story a lot like lifting weights at the gym?

Metarepresentationality and some recurrent patterns of the detective story

A cognitive evolutionary perspective : always historicize!

Conclusion : why do we read (and write) fiction? Authors meet their readers

Is this why we read fiction? surely, there is more to it!