Theory on a High… The Influence of Dopamine on Literary Studies Discourse

Abstract

In recent decades, affect theory has become an extremely useful tool for studying the functioning and impact of literature. Supported by somatopoetics and the latest tendencies of the ‘new humanities’ seeking rapprochement with the hard sciences, i.e. biology or chemistry, affect theory is an interesting avenue to explore the relationship between affectivity and literary theory. The article considers the thesis of the influence of biochemical processes operating in the brain on the recent emergence of numerous methodological proposals in the study of theory. The concept of Roland Barthes’ “pleasure of the text” is transferred to theoretical grounds in order to demonstrate the affective sources of the interpretative orientations created. The author juxtaposes Barthes’ concept with discoveries about the biochemical processes occurring in the brain under the influence of dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter responsible, among other things, for inducing states of satisfaction and pleasure. These states are the result of dopamine dosage, which is released the more often we are strongly influenced by what is new. As a result, the process of reading as a discovery of meaning can induce states resembling drug-induced intoxication. Addiction to dopamine leads to the need for stronger stimuli, and could therefore explain the new literary studies concepts that keep appearing in the circulation of theory, looking far beyond the humanities for a new language of description and interpretation.