"Strange Fevers, Burning Within": The Neurology of Winesburg, Ohio
Philosophy and literature October 1, 2011 DOI: 10.1353/phl.2011.0027 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Citations | 15 |
| Key points | Argues that Winesburg, Ohio is not Freudian primitivism but a neurological allegory in which grotesque characters stand for subcortical brain regions and George Willard for the neocortex, dramatizing the emotional basis of consciousness and the tension between biological determinism and social constructivism. |
Abstract
Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio , a modernist collection of interconnected short stories that critics dismissed as Freudian primitivism, is actually an insightful meditation on the emotional basis of consciousness. Grotesque characters, resembling subcortical brain regions, interact with protagonist George Willard, the town reporter, in ways that reproduce the interactions of the hindbrain and limbic system with the neocortex. Interpreting Winesburg as neurological allegory foregrounds its thematic inquiry into the status of biological determinism during the heyday of modernism and social constructivism. Such an approach reveals the common ground, as well as the differences, between psychoanalytic and neurological explanations of consciousness.