There is so much to unpack in this book and it is so interesting in reference to some of the ideas of cognitive narratology. Chwe believes that Jane Austen used game theory to write and create her novels before we had identified the technique as game theory.
“Strategic thinking, what Austen calls “penetration,” is game theory’s central concept: when choosing an action, a person thinks about how others will act. Austen analyzes these foundational concepts in examples too numerous and systematic to be considered incidental. Austen then considers how strategic thinking relates to other explanations of human action, such as those involving emotions, habits, rules, social factors, and ideology. Austen carefully distinguishes strategic thinking from other concepts often confused with it, such as selfishness and economism, and even discusses the disadvantages of strategic thinking. Finally, Austen explores new applications, arguing, for example, that strategizing together in a partnership is the surest foundation for intimate relationships.” (14)
This perspective breaks down the ideas within Austen’s writing in such a way that reader can begin to really see the intentionality behinds her characters. It is the human element that makes her writing so interesting the intricate webs that our favorites characters weave such as Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcey. What this lends to some of the ideas of cognitive narratology is that level of story telling mixed with the human relationship, why the writer and the reader bond with such literature. Austen is able to take basic human characteristics and seeming real life struggle and put them into a story and that is part of what allows her writing to endure.
Another interesting element with thee approach to game theory when looking at Austen is equality. While the women in her novels are often still trapped by their situations in society the relationships that her main characters build, with male or female characters allows them many levels of equality, Chwe alludes to that idea in the last sentence of the quote “that strategizing together in a partnership is the surest foundation for intimate relationships”.
Catherine Gill 