A. C. Bradley's approach to character-construal in Shakespearean Tragedy (1904) has often been regarded as a good example of the humanizing approach to literary characters. His lectures on Iago, Othello or Macbeth have been criticized by other scholars for a number of reasons, but particularly for using premises and facts in his argumentation which are not found in the plays. Bradley's task is in many senses an example of person perception, which he performs without alluding to any social psychological theories or methods. In the present article I revise Bradley's reasoning in the light of Kelley's Covariance Theory of Causal Attribution, in an attempt both to re-evaluate Bradley's procedures and, especially, to determine ways in which social psychology might provide literary critics with valuable tools and insights.The main difference between good and bad critics is that the good critic points to something that is actually contained in the work of art, whereas the bad critic Brought to you by | St. Petersburg State University Authenticated | 134.99.128.41 Download Date | 12/11/13 4:57 PM

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Succumbing to the moon's enchantment seems nothing out of the ordinary, however much the post-modern human mind wants to deny the fact. The present article shows the way art -particularly post-modern poetry-makes use of this ordinary romantic imaginative attraction in order to convey everlasting human stances towards real life. As an example we shall consider the moon from two different perspectives: Philip Larkin's "Sad Steps" helps the reader view it from a quasi-philosophical position, whereas Sylvia Plath's "Edge" uses it as an objective correlative for a woman's complexity. For the analysis of the poems we have adopted a cognitive poetic approach, based on the cognitive linguistic theories on mental spaces, cognitive-conceptual metaphor and sensing-conceptualising connection among others. Keywords: Post-modern poetry, cognitive poetics, Philip Larkin, Sylvia Plath, moon.Resumen: Por mucho que las mentes de hombres y mujeres de la era post-moderna quieran negarlo, sucumbir al encanto de la luna forma parte de nuestra vida cotidiana. En este artículo queremos mostrar el modo en que el arte, y en particular la poesía postmoderna, emplea esta atracción de cariz romántico imaginativo para transmitir posturas siempre presentes ante la realidad vital del ser humano. De la mano de Philip Larkin y Sylvia Plath exploramos distintos modos de percibir la entidad lunar: con "Sad Steps" Larkin nos ayuda a observarla desde una perspectiva casi filosófica, y el poema "Edge" de Plath nos lleva a reconocerla como correlato objetivo de la complejidad femenina. Para el análisis de los poemas hemos adoptado un enfoque poético-cognitivo, basado en las teorías lingüístico-cognitivas sobre espacios mentales, sobre metáfora conceptual-cognitiva, y sobre las conexiones existentes entre experiencia sensorial y conceptualización, entre otras.

This essay challenges the myth of Hannibal Lecter, in Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs, as an enigmatic and unclassifiable character. Lecter’s enigma is generated through a largely unexplored process of de-characterization, i.e. by recurrently presenting him through the speech of other characters who describe him as unknowable. After considering Lecter’s case against the background of well-known literary unknowabilities, a deductive phenomenological exploration of Lecter’s de-characterization is carried out with the assistance of tools from the disciplines of personality and social psychology, and supported by empirical evidence from those fields. The demystifying of Lecter’s unreadability does not entail a debasement of the film or the character. On the contrary, Lecter’s de-characterization, albeit a form of narrative manipulation, is viewed as responsible for much of the film’s impact and success. It produces sensitivity-boosting effects; it mediates the indirect characterization of the other characters; and it engages the spectators’ self-image thus contributing importantly to the enjoyment and appreciation of the film.