Jonathan Gottschall

Jonathan Gottschall (born September 20, 1972) is an American literary scholar specializing in literature and evolution. He teaches at Washington & Jefferson College in Pennsylvania,[2][4] where he is a distinguished fellow in the English department. He is the author or editor of seven books.

Jonathan Gottschall
Photo by Sam Fee
Born (1972-09-20) September 20, 1972
Washington, PA, United States
Alma materState University of New York at Binghamton[1]
Spouse(s)married[2]
Children2 daughters[2]
Scientific career
Fieldsliterature and evolution
InstitutionsWashington & Jefferson College
Doctoral advisorDavid Sloan Wilson[3]
Websitewww.jonathangottschall.com

Education

He completed graduate work in English at State University of New York at Binghamton,[1] where he worked under David Sloan Wilson.[3]

Recognition

Gottschall was profiled by The New York Times[5] and The Chronicle of Higher Education.[6] His work was featured in an article in Science describing literature and evolution.[3]

Selected works

His work The Rape of Troy: Evolution, Violence and the World of Homer describes the Homeric epic poems Iliad and Odyssey in terms of evolutionary psychology, with the central violent conflicts in these works driven by the lack of young women to marry and the resulting evolutionary legacy, as opposed to the violent conflicts being driven by honor or wealth.[7]

Literature, Science and a New Humanities advocates that the humanities, and literary studies in particular, need to avail themselves of quantitative and objective methods of inquiry as well as the traditional qualitative and subjective, if they are to produce cumulative, progressive knowledge, and provides a number of case studies that apply quantitative methods to fairy and folk tale around the world to answer questions about human universals and differences.[8]

Gottschall's book, The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human (Houghton Mifflin 2012), is about the evolutionary mystery of storytelling—about the way we shape stories, and stories shape us.[9] A review by The Virginian-Pilot said "Gottschall assesses and accounts for that powerful narrative attraction in a compelling chronicle of his own...and it is a certifiable knee-slap, three-pipe, blue-moon ripsnorter.[10] The Storytelling Animal was a New York Times Editor's Choice selection and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

In his latest book, The Professor in the Cage: Why Men Fight and Why We Like to Watch (Penguin 2015), Gottschall describes the three years he spent at a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) gym trying to learn how to fight. He uses this experience as a way to explore the evolutionary psychology of violence, masculinity, and sports.

List of works
  • The Literary Animal: Evolution and the Nature of Narrative (2005) – edited with David Sloan Wilson. ISBN 978-0810122864
  • The Rape of Troy: Evolution, Violence and the World of Homer (2008)
  • Literature, Science and a New Humanities (2008)
  • Evolution, Literature and Film: A Reader (2010) – co-edited with Brian Boyd and Joseph Carroll.
  • Graphing Jane Austen: The Evolutionary Basis of Literary Meaning (2012). Co-authored with Joseph Carroll, John A. Johnson, and Daniel Kruger.
  • The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make us Human (2012) ISBN 978-0547391403
  • The Professor in the Cage: Why Men Fight and Why We Like to Watch (2015)

References
  1. Max, D.T. (November 6, 2005). "The Literary Darwinists". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 27, 2013.
  2. Gottschall, Jonathan. "About". Jonathan Gottschall. Archived from the original on 2012-02-01. Retrieved 2012-01-31.
  3. "Red in Tooth and Claw Among the Literati" (PDF). Science. May 6, 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 25, 2012. Retrieved 2012-01-31.
  4. "Jonathan Gottschall featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education's 'Chronicle Review'". W&J Messenger. Washington & Jefferson College. Archived from the original on 2010-06-02. Retrieved 2010-04-26.
  5. Cohen, Patricia (March 31, 2010). "Next Big Thing in English: Knowing They Know That You Know". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-04-26.
  6. Peterson, Britt (August 1, 2008). "Darwin to the Rescue" (PDF). The Chronicle of Higher Education. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 25, 2012. Retrieved 2010-04-26.
  7. "Science Magazine Podcast Transcript, 6 May 2011" (PDF). Science. May 6, 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 February 2012. Retrieved 2012-01-31.
  8. Easterlin, Nancy (April 2009). "Literature, Science, and the New Humanities (review)". Philosophy and Literature. 33 (1): 230–33. doi:10.1353/phl.0.0035.
  9. "My Daily Read: Jonathan Gottschall". The Chronicle of Higher Education. January 25, 2012. Retrieved January 31, 2012.
  10. "Storytelling is hard-wired into the species". The Virginian-Pilot  – via HighBeam Research (subscription required) . May 6, 2012. Archived from the original on June 10, 2014. Retrieved September 17, 2012.
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