The NYT just ran a fascinating piece about a new type of literary criticism. Instead of only approaching criticism of fictional works and poetry through the perspective of existing literary criticisms such as Marxist criticism or deconstructionism, some literary critics are now joining together brain imaging and literary criticism. One of the basic ideas is that someone reading a multi-layered idea will use more brain power than someone reading a newspaper.

The author uses an example of a multi-layered sentence structure from the popular sitcom “Friends”:  “They don’t know that we know they know we know.” The background to the sentence is as follows:

"Phoebe and Rachel plot to play a joke on Monica and Chandler after they learn the two are secretly dating. The couple discover the prank and try to turn the tables, but Phoebe realizes this turnabout and once again tries to outwit them."

Although this is just from an episode of Friends,  and not a literary classic, the layering in the sentence is more complex than it seems. To understand the sentence, the viewer has to not only be able to track a semi-complex idea in English, but also has to be able to understand the situation behind the motivations of the different characters.

Multi-layered filtering like this is akin to mind-reading in that the reader or viewer has to interpret the motivations and feelings of the characters and the perspective of the speaker. Mind-mapping through the use of brain scanning will allow researchers to visualize what is happening in a reader’s brain when reading complex literature (or multi-layered structures) as opposed to a blog or newspaper.

One of the components that the researchers will look for in an upcoming study is the ability for readers to track multiple layers of ideas from different people. According to Dr. Zunshine, who is a researcher at the University of Kentucky, “Humans can comfortably keep track of three mental states at a time.” Beyond that, emotional states of mind  are increasingly more difficult to track for people to track.

For example, “Harry told Peter Jane liked chocolate”  is considerably less complex than the character narratives of Virginia Woolf, which can involve up to six characters.  The research will test the ability of 12 individuals to assist college level reading improvement programs.

Other uses for the mind-mapping while reading are to link our love with reading fiction to evolutionary biology.