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ALBERTO CASADEI, Poetry and Fiction: A Necessary, Historically Verifiable, Combination

plex’ myth arises from the interaction between the human biological-
cognitive abilities and an Umwelt that requires continuous a empts at
an explanation for unknown phenomena. These are what the explana-
tory sense nuclei aim to control, and they are presented as micro-stories
and not as autonomous images (unlike in painting, where it was a ne-
cessity). The stages of these processes were undoubtedly many, starting
with the ritual and artistic treatment of the body as well as the objects;
in this area, one should assess not only the importance of facial expres-
sions but also the role of ta oos or other body modifications introduced
initially to foster a relationship with the living environment, and which
turned into ornaments over time. This is part of a cultural development
based on biological factors, and the sections below will detail the foun-
dational components of such a transformation.

3. Obscurity and eventfulness in literature: a cognitive approach

3.1. The meaning that is conveyed in the early ‘literary’ works can be
subsumed under the two categories of obscurity and eventfulness: to de-
fine and stylize the content of these subject ma ers with all the bio-
logical and cognitive propensities already indicated (see § 1) was the
achievement of the first poet-shamans. They did so to convey the sense
nuclei pertaining to reality (events) but also to the reshaping of reality:
it is appropriate to mention here the notion of ‘cognitive unconscious’
17
by now widely employed in the literature. The concept describes the
extensive pre-rational domain that not only underlies much of our
conscious actions, perhaps pre-determining them to some extent, but
is also likely to allow the storage of experiential effects of any type, by
activating, for example, the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex.

17 For what follows, see at least Uriah Kriegel, Subjective Consciousnes. A Self-
Representational Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009); Michael C.
Corballis, The Wandering Mind. What the Brain Does When You’re Not Looking
(Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2015); Laura Macchi, Maria Bagassi and
Riccardo Viale, eds., Cognitive Unconscious and Human Rationality (Cambridge,
Massachuse s: MIT Press, 2016), especially 239 ff.

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