Consciousness and the Novel

Via Arts and Letters Daily I found this intriguing profile of David Lodge, author of a new set of essays Consciousness and the Novel and a recent novel Thinks, about the interesection between critical theory and consciousness studies.

Cognitive science and deconstructive theory may offer "a formidable challenge to the idea of human nature on which most literary fiction is based," writes Mr. Lodge in Consciousness and the Novel. The notion of "the autonomous human self is not universal, eternally given, and valid for all time and all places. That doesn't, however, necessarily mean that it isn't a good idea, or that its time has passed. A great deal of what we value in civilized life depends upon it."