Bilingual and Multicultural Perspectives on Poetry, Music, and Narrative

The Science of Art. Bilingual and multicultural approaches to the study of literature and music give the most complete panorama of the problems related to understanding artistic ability and sensibility. Norbert Francis argues that poetic, narrative, and musical abilities are an intrinsic part of human nature. Poetry, music, and narrative are the three aesthetic genres based on uniquely human verbal and vocal capabilities. Universal across all languages and cultures and accessible to all developing children, their foundation must be primary and essential. How did they arise among our early ancestors, and what does this origin imply about our participation in their creation and performance? How do we learn poetic, narrative, and musical abilities? Studying these questions from a scientific point of view requires a cross-cultural approach that also considers contact and interaction between different languages. Research in recent years has made significant progress toward a better understanding of the underlying competencies in literature and music and of the acquisition of artistic sensibility in each case. Bilingual and Multicultural Perspectives on Poetry, Music, and Narrative reviews the relevant research and, at the same time, challenges popular views in academia associated with cultural studies and related fields that have rejected the methods of modern science. Its contributions will be of particular value to students and scholars of linguistics, literary studies, and musicology.