I've avoided comment on Ted Kennedy - de mortuis, you know - but this is too bizarre to ignore.
The upshot of their analysis, published in the journal Evolutionary Psychology, is that novels have an agonistic structure—that is, they pit protagonists against antagonists, good guys against bad guys.
Only problem is this: Protagonists are just leading characters. "Protagonists exemplify traits that evoke admiration and liking in readers," the study found ... Er, apply that to Oedipus in Oedipus Rex (Oedipus at Colonus is something else again). Apply it to the wonderful Captain Ahab. These people are fools. Great literature has characters who are complex, contradictory, inconsistent - like real people.
Frank, I guess definitions of words - at least in mind of those who composed that article - are evolving, as well.
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