Emotions, Memory, and the Wrath of Achilles: Observations from Cognitive Psychology
-
Elizabeth Minchin
Abstract
Psychology tells us that when one’s emotions are aroused the vividness and completeness of one’s memory for an event is enhanced. But the impact of emotion has negative effects too. Psychologists have studied a phenomenon described as “narrowing of attention”: under certain circumstances emotion promotes memory for details central to an emotion-laden event at the expense of details at the periphery. The Iliadic Achilles is an interesting case-study. Achilles’ vivid memory of the quarrel with Agamemnon drives him to sit on the sidelines as his Achaean comrades fall in battle. What the external audience takes away from those early scenes is confusion: how could the individual who has been introduced as the hero of this tale abandon his comrades - and the Achaean enterprise itself - so readily?
Abstract
Psychology tells us that when one’s emotions are aroused the vividness and completeness of one’s memory for an event is enhanced. But the impact of emotion has negative effects too. Psychologists have studied a phenomenon described as “narrowing of attention”: under certain circumstances emotion promotes memory for details central to an emotion-laden event at the expense of details at the periphery. The Iliadic Achilles is an interesting case-study. Achilles’ vivid memory of the quarrel with Agamemnon drives him to sit on the sidelines as his Achaean comrades fall in battle. What the external audience takes away from those early scenes is confusion: how could the individual who has been introduced as the hero of this tale abandon his comrades - and the Achaean enterprise itself - so readily?
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Contents VII
- List of Figures IX
- Introduction XI
- Emotions, Memory, and the Wrath of Achilles: Observations from Cognitive Psychology 1
- The Tension between Memory and Emotion in Homer’s Audience 21
- The Emotional Memories of Internal Narrators: Homer, Virgil, Ovid 45
- Religious Emotions and Mnemonic Discourses: The Gold Tablets of Memory 69
- Remembering Emotions 85
- Exploitation of (Alleged) Memories in Demosthenes and Aeschines 101
- Aristotle on Memory and Emotion in Human and Non-human Animals 129
- Emotive Memory Traces in Roman Literature 153
- Herodes Atticus, Material Memories, and the Expression and Reception of Grief 175
- Memory and Emotion in Philostratus’ Heroicus 203
- Nostalgia and Reading in Augustine’s Confessions 225
- List of Contributors 243
- Index Locorum 245
- Index Rerum 259
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Contents VII
- List of Figures IX
- Introduction XI
- Emotions, Memory, and the Wrath of Achilles: Observations from Cognitive Psychology 1
- The Tension between Memory and Emotion in Homer’s Audience 21
- The Emotional Memories of Internal Narrators: Homer, Virgil, Ovid 45
- Religious Emotions and Mnemonic Discourses: The Gold Tablets of Memory 69
- Remembering Emotions 85
- Exploitation of (Alleged) Memories in Demosthenes and Aeschines 101
- Aristotle on Memory and Emotion in Human and Non-human Animals 129
- Emotive Memory Traces in Roman Literature 153
- Herodes Atticus, Material Memories, and the Expression and Reception of Grief 175
- Memory and Emotion in Philostratus’ Heroicus 203
- Nostalgia and Reading in Augustine’s Confessions 225
- List of Contributors 243
- Index Locorum 245
- Index Rerum 259
