Motherhood, evolutionary psychology and mirror neurons or: ‘Grammar is politics by other means’

Lesnik-Oberstein, K. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4970-0556 (2015) Motherhood, evolutionary psychology and mirror neurons or: ‘Grammar is politics by other means’. Feminist Theory, 16 (2). pp. 171-187. ISSN 1741-2773 doi: 10.1177/1464700115586514

Abstract/Summary

Through a close analysis of socio-biologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy’s work on motherhood and ‘mirror neurons’ it is argued that Hrdy’s claims exemplify how research that ostensibly bases itself on neuroscience, including in literary studies ‘literary Darwinism’, relies after all not on scientific, but on political assumptions, namely on underlying, unquestioned claims about the autonomous, transparent, liberal agent of consumer capitalism. These underpinning assumptions, it is further argued, involve the suppression or overlooking of an alternative, prior tradition of feminist theory, including feminist science criticism.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/37231
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Literature and Languages > English Literature
Uncontrolled Keywords	Evolutionary psychology; feminist science studies; feminist theory; literary Darwinism; mirror neurons; motherhood
Publisher	SAGE
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