| Early descriptions of culture as part of Darwinian evolution have been ignored by literary critics, but have seen renewed interest during the last two decades. Evolutionary psychology, anthropology, neuroscience, formalism, and Darwinist literature independently suggest cultural displays that stem from innate mental processes. Sectors of the brain that activate during language use, biographical storytelling, and fictive storytelling have been identified through modem imaging. These disparate sources suggest not only that the human mind encodes perceived reality into narrative to aid in understanding, but also that the narrative falls into a predictable template. Campbell's monomyth is a possible exemplar of an instinctive template for human storytelling. |
