Cognition, Mindreading, and Shakespeare's Characters

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

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2. The Mind’s Construction: An Introduction to Mindreading in Shakespeare

   • Nicholas R. Helms

   Pages 1-15

3. Reading the Mind: Cognitive Science and Close Reading

   • Nicholas R. Helms

   Pages 17-43

4. Inferring the Mind: Parasites and the Breakdown of Inference in Othello

   • Nicholas R. Helms

   Pages 45-80

5. Imagining the Mind: Empathy and Misreading in Much Ado About Nothing

   • Nicholas R. Helms

   Pages 81-113

6. Integrating Minds: Blending Methods in The King Is Alive and Twelfth Night

   • Nicholas R. Helms

   Pages 115-142

7. Finding the Frame: Inference in Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet

   • Nicholas R. Helms

   Pages 143-173

8. Reading Incoherence: How Shakespeare Speaks Back to Cognitive Science

   • Nicholas R. Helms

   Pages 175-210

9. Mindreading as Engagement: Active Spectators and “The Strangers’ Case”

   • Nicholas R. Helms

   Pages 211-223

10. Back Matter

    Pages 225-229

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Cognition, Mindreading, and Shakespeare's Characters brings cognitive science to Shakespeare, applying contemporary theories of mindreading to Shakespeare’s construction of character. Building on the work of the philosopher Alvin Goldman and cognitive literary critics such as Bruce McConachie and Lisa Zunshine, Nicholas Helms uses the language of mindreading to analyze inference and imagination throughout Shakespeare’s plays, dwelling at length on misread minds in King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing, Othello, and Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare manipulates the mechanics of misreading to cultivate an early modern audience of adept mindreaders, an audience that continues to contemplate the moral ramifications of Shakespeare’s characters even after leaving the playhouse. Using this cognitive literary approach, Helms reveals how misreading fuels Shakespeare’s enduring popular appeal and investigates the ways in which Shakespeare’s characters can both corroborate and challenge contemporary cognitive theories of the human mind.

• cognitive pyschology
• cognitive literary studies
• literary disability studies
• ecocriticism
• literary animal studies
• character study
• character criticism
• age studies
• mindreading
• Shakespeare

“Helms uses the tools of cognitive science to reveal the ways Shakespeare’s plays instruct audiences and readers in the nuances of mindreading—the construction of others’ thoughts from bodily evidence and by imaginative extrapolation. In addition to making a clear and compelling case for using current cognitive theory to decipher Renaissance texts, Helms gives us innovative readings—revisiting Lucrece’s trauma for her failed efforts to read Tarquin, treating Iago as a kind of psychic parasite, thinking about death in Verona through the lives of carrion flies—that reinvigorate Shakespeare studies.” (Karen Raber, Professor of English, University of Mississippi, USA)

“Cognition, Mindreading, and Shakespeare’s Characters brilliantly brings together sensitive and critical accounts of research in the contemporary cognitive sciences; deft close readings of Shakespeare’s plays; and a fresh approach to character criticism.  Helms breaks new ground in the field; his emphasis upon misreadings and other forms of error both draws upon and critiques cognitive theories of mind, resulting in an interdisciplinary study that is genuinely bi-directional.” (Evelyn Tribble, Professor of English, University of Connecticut, USA)

• University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA

  Nicholas R. Helms

Nicholas R. Helms is Instructor of English at the Hudson Strode Program in Renaissance Studies at The University of Alabama, USA. His research applies cognitive science to early modern drama and poetry. He also acts as artistic director of the Improbable Fictions staged reading series.

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