M. Winkleman & Kenneth A. Loparo 
A Cognitive Approach to John Donne’s Songs and Sonnets 

Investigations into how the brain actually works have led to remarkable discoveries and these findings carry profound implications for interpreting literature. This study applies recent breakthroughs from neuroscience and evolutionary psychology in order to deepen our understanding of John Donne’s Songs and Sonnets.

Table of Content

Introduction: ‘Love Sometimes Would Contemplate, Sometimes Do’ 1. ‘My Verse, the Strict Map of my Misery’: Of Metaphors and Mindscapes 2. The Composing of ‘A Jeat Ring sent’; or Donne as Thinker and Imaginator 3. ‘A Lecture, Love, in loves philosophy’: Donne’s Illuminating Anatomizations 4. ‘John Donne, Anne Donne, Vn-done’? A Biocultural Reassessment of Their Scandalous Marriage 5. ‘Firme substantial love’: Donne’s Penetrating Observations 6. ‘The Very Ecstasy of Love’: Prescriptions for Bliss in Irvine Welsh and John Donne 7. Sighs and Tears: Biological Costly Signals and Donne’s ‘whining Poëtry’ 8. ‘Verse that drawes Natures workes, from Natures law’; or, Prolegomenon to a Darwinian Defence of Literature Conclusion: Why Cognitive Science Matters Now

About the author

Michael Winkleman is a lecturer in Renaissance English Literature at Bowling Green State University.