The science in literature

Words like technology and invention are not normally tossed around when discussing literature, yet Ohio State professor Angus Fletcher uses both words frequently in his book Wonderworks (2021). His subtitle is Literary Invention and the Science of Stories.

Fletcher argues that literature can accomplish certain goals, such as feeding creativity, decreasing loneliness and warding off despair. Certain authors and certain books have proved inventive in demonstrating how to accomplish such things with mere words.

The authors he discusses are diverse, from Homer, Plato and Shakespeare to Franz Kafka, Maya Angelou and Tina Fey. The works discussed range from the Book of Job and Hamlet to Winnie-the-Pooh and To Kill a Mockingbird.

At one time, he writes, it was thought that literature, especially popular novels, caused anxiety, especially among women. Virginia Woolf, among others, showed through the invention of stream of consciousness writing that literature could do just the opposite.

How can reading The Godfather improve your health? Fletcher tells us how. What was Jane Austen's contribution to neuroscience? He explains, "Prior to Jane Austen, no novels had drawn us into feeling irony and love at the same time."

This book, while not easy reading, gives us an inventive way to look at literature.