Consciousness and the Novel

Human consciousness, long the province of literature, has lately come in for a remapping -even rediscovery- by the natural sciences, driven by developments in Artificial Intelligence, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology. But as richest record we have of human consciousness, literature, David Lodge suggests, may offer kind of knowledge about this phenomenon that is complementary, not opposed, to scientific knowledge. Writing with caracteristic wit and brio , and amploying the insight and acumen of a skilled novelist and critic, Lodge here explores the representation of human consciousness in fiction (mainly English and American) in the light of the recent investigations in cognitive science, neuroscience, and related disciplines. In essays on Dickns, Forster, Evelyn Wawgh, Kingsly and Martin Amis, Henry James, Updike and Philip Roth, and in reflections on his own practice as a novelist, Lodge brings to light the technical, intellectual and sometimes simply mysterious workings of the creative mind.