Personal Identity and Literature

In Personal Identity and Literature, Hogan examines what makes an individual a particular, unique self. He draws on cognitive and affective science as well as literary works - from Walt Whitman and Frederick Douglass to Dorothy Richardson, Alice Munro, and J. M. Coetzee. His scholarly analyses are also intertwined with more personal reflections, on for example his mother’s memory loss. The result is a work that examines a complex topic by drawing on a unique range of resources, from empirical psychology and philosophy to novels, films, and biographical experiences. The book provides a clear, systematic account of personal identity that is theoretically strong, but also unique and engaging.

Patrick Colm Hogan is a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor in the Department of English and the Program in Cognitive Science at the University of Connecticut. He is the author of over twenty books, including Cognitive Science, Literature, and the Arts: A Guide for Humanists (Routledge, 2003), Ulysses and the Poetics of Cognition (Routledge, 2013), and Literature and Emotion (Routledge, 2018).