The evolution of literature : legacies of Darwin in European cultures / / edited by Nicholas Saul and Simon J. James.

• Superior document: Internationale Forschungen zur allgemeinen und vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft, 152
• Author: Evolution of Literature: Legacies of Darwin in European Cultures
• TeilnehmendeR: Saul, Nicholas.; James, Simon J.; Evolution of Literature: Legacies of Darwin in European Cultures (2008 : Durham)
• Year of Publication: 2011
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Internationale Forschungen zur allgemeinen und vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft ; 152.
• Physical Description: 346 p. :; ill.
• Notes: This book emerges from an interdisciplinary comparative literature conference 'The Evolution of Literature: Legacies of Darwin in European Cultures', which was held at St. Mary's College, Durham University, from 4-6 April 2008.

Daniel Dennett famously claimed for Darwinian theory the status of universal solvent: the totalising theory of theories, even of theories of literature. Yet only a few writers and critics have followed his view. This volume asks why. It examines both evolution in literature, and the evolution of literature. It looks at literary representations of Darwinism both historically and synchronically, at how a theory of literature might be derived from evolutionary theory, and indeed how evolution as a process might be regarded as itself aesthetic. It complements these theoretical and historical dimensions of enquiry with the comparative dimension. It asks in short: What have been the representations of Darwinian evolutionary theory in literature since the late nineteenth century? What are the leading paradigms in theory and in literature for renovating the evolutionary model? What were, and are, the differences in British, French, German paradigms of literary Darwinian reception? How, if at all, did Darwinian modes of thought hybridise across national borders? Last, but not least: What is the future of the Darwinian mode?

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Acknowledgements / Nicholas Saul and Simon J. James -- The Evolution of Literature / Nicholas Saul and Simon J. James -- The Law of Higgledy-pigglety: Charles Darwin’s Inheritance, his Legacy and the Moral Order of Nature / David Knight -- ‘Our Racial Friends’: Disease, Poverty and Social Darwinism, 1860-1940 / Paul Weindling -- From Primate to Human in Two Easy Steps / Joseph Emonds -- Charles Darwin’s Centenary and the Politics and Poetics of Parenting: Inheritance, Variation, and the Aesthetic Legacy of Samuel Butler / David Amigoni -- By An Evolutionist: Poetic Language in Chambers and Tennyson / Anna Barton -- Victorian Evolutionary Criticism and the Pitfalls of Consilience / John Holmes -- H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine and the End of Literature / Simon J. James -- Mind in Modern Fiction: Literary and Philosophical Perspectives after Darwin / Patricia Waugh -- E-Volutionary Fictions: The Darwinian Algorithm in Literature and Computer Games / Alistair Brown -- Value Judgements and Functional Roles: Carroll’s Quarrel With Pinker / Jon Adams -- The Book of Nature: Biosemiotics and the Evolution of Literature / Wendy Wheeler -- Men, Monkeys, Monsters and Evolution in Fiction from the Fin-de-siècle to the Present / Christopher Lloyd -- Zola and Darwin: A Reassessment / David Baguley -- On the Evolution of Humanity and the Oppressions of Darwinism in French Postwar Fiction / Louise Lyle -- Houellebecq, Genetics and Evolutionary Psychology / Douglas Morrey -- ‘Once in Human Nature, a Thing Cannot be Driven Out’: Evolutionary Aesthetics in Wilhelm Jensen’s The Legacy of Blood (1869). An Early Response to Darwin / Nicholas Saul -- ‘Live like a Man and not like a Monkey’: Nietzsche’s Philosophic Vitalism and Darwin’s Theory of Evolution / John A. McCarthy -- ‘Creative Evolution:’ Bergson’s Critique of Science and its Reception in the German-Speaking World / David Midgley -- Evolutionary Psychology as a Heuristic in Literary Studies / Katja Mellmann -- Contributors -- Index.