The Emergence of Mind: Representations of Consciousness in Narrative Discourse in English ed. by David Herman (review)

This volume, the thirteenth to appear in the distinguished Frontiers of Narrative Series edited by David Herman, collects nine essays arranged chronologically to cover “trends in the representation of consciousness in English-Language Narrative Discourse from 700 A.D. to the present” (vii). Through comparison or contrast, many of its observations on character depiction and on the “developmental trajectories” of stories can of course be applied to fictional characters and narratives created in other languages, cultures, and media. The essays aim to inspire research on “narrative universals” such as “constraints on consciousness representation built into narrative as a discourse genre” (3). The book also aspires to promote dialogue among narratologists, philosophers, linguists, psychologists, and anthropologists (2), not to mention neurologists.