Deeper than Reasontakes the insights of modern scientific research on the emotions and uses them to illuminate questions about our emotional involvement with the arts. Robinson begins by laying out a theory of emotion, one that is supported by the best evidence from current empirical work, and then in the light of this theory examines some of the ways in which the emotions function in the arts. Written in a clear and engaging style, her book will make fascinating reading for anyone interested in the emotions and how they work, as well as anyone engaged with the arts and aesthetics, especially with questions about emotional expression in the arts, emotional experience of art forms, and, more generally, artistic interpretation.
I. What are Emotions and How do they Operate?1. Emotions as Judgements
2. Stirrings of the Blood
3. Emotion as Process
II. Emotion in Literature4. The Importance of Being Emotional
5. Puzzles and Paradoxes
6. A Sentimental Education
7. Formal Devices as Coping Mechanisms
III. Expressing Emotions in the Arts8. Pouring forth the Soul
9. A New Romantic Theory of Expression
IV. Music and the Emotions10. Emotional Expression in Music
11. The Expression of Emotion in Instrumental Music
12. Listening with Emotion: how our emotions help us to understand music
13. Feeling the Music
14. Epilogue
Robinson is the only philosopher of music known to me who seems to have understood that musical experience involves the activation of the motor system and to have grasped this fact's fundamental importance.
Deeper than Reasonis impressive. Indeed, it is the best philosophical monograph I know on emotion and the arts. Among its many achievements is one most rare: it manages to be both accessible and profound. --
Modern PhilologyDeeper than Reason: Emotion and its Role in Literature, Musilăt