The Brain of Robert Frost

Originally published in 1988,this book brings brain science to literary criticism. The Brain of Robert Frost combines psychoanalysis with the findings of brain research and cognitive psychology to model the way we create and respond to literature. Norman Holland draws three central ideas from the minds new science: the critical supercharged period in infancy when individuality is formed; the binding of emotion to intellect deep in the old brain; the top-down, inside-out,feedback processing of language in the new.Then, using Robert Frost as an example both of a writer and a reader, and comparing Frosts reading of a poem to readings by six professors of literature, Holland builds a new, powerful way of thinking about literary criticism and teaching.A book about literary cognition,The Brain of Robert Frost furthers our understanding of the reading process, of poets brains,and of our own.