Writing the Mind
Walser, Hannah
Novels are often said to help us understand how others think¿especially when those others are profoundly different from us. When interpreting a character's behavior, readers are believed to make use of "Theory of Mind, " the general human capacity to attribute mental states to other people. In many well-known nineteenth-century American novels, however, characters behave in ways that are opaque to readers, other characters, and even themselves...