As for hierarchy, the only feature that makes neuro lit crit “cutting edge” is the neuro label. The alliance with “science” moves literary studies closer to the top of the epistemic hierarchy—as if other methods provided no genuine insights, as if we hadn’t realized that reading literature may be worthwhile before brain-scanning technology existed, or as if assessments of cultural value could be brain based.
Inspired by the homonymous book by Fernando Vidal and Francisco Ortega, this timespace presents the authors' genealogy of the cerebral subject and the influence of the neurological discourse in human sciences, mental health and culture.