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Literary Darwinism: Evolution, Human Nature, and Literature » (1st Edition)

Book cover image of Literary Darwinism: Evolution, Human Nature, and Literature by Joseph Carroll

Authors: Joseph Carroll, Joseph Caroll
ISBN-13: 9780415970143, ISBN-10: 0415970148
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Taylor & Francis, Inc.
Date Published: March 2004
Edition: 1st Edition

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Author Biography: Joseph Carroll

Book Synopsis

In Literary Darwinism, Carroll presents a comprehensive survey of this new movement with a collection of his most important previously published work, along with three new essays. The essays and reviews give commentary on all the major contributors to the field, situate the field as a whole in relation to historical trends and contemporary schools, provide Darwinist readings of major literary texts such as Pride and Prejudice and Tess of the d'Urbervilles, and analyze literary Darwinism in relation to the affiliated fields of evolutionary metaphysics, cognitive rhetoric, and ecocriticism. Collecting the essays in a single volume will provide a central point of reference for scholars interested in consulting what the "foremost practitioner" (New York Times) of Darwinian literary criticism has to say about his field.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Acknowledgments
Pt. 1Mapping the Disciplinary Landscape
1The Use of Arnold in a Darwinian World3
2Biology and Poststructuralism15
3"Theory," Anti-Theory, and Empirical Criticism29
4Out of Eden and to the Left: A Review of John Ellis's Literature Lost: Social Agendas and the Corruption of the Humanities41
5Literary Study and Evolutionary Theory: A Review of Books by Alexander Argyros, Walter Koch, Karl Kroeber, Robert Storey, Frederick Turner, and Mark Turner45
6Pinker, Dickens, and the Functions of Literature63
7Wilson's Consilience and Literary Study69
8Ecocriticism, Cognitive Ethology, and the Environments of Victorian Fiction85
Pt. 2Adaptationist Literary Studies: Theory and Practical Criticism
1The Deep Structure of Literary Representations103
2Universals in Literary Study117
3Human Universals and Literary Meaning: A Sociobiological Critique of Pride and Prejudice, Villette, O Pioneers!, Anna of the Five Towns, and Tess of the d'Urbervilles129
4Organism, Environment, and Literature147
5Adaptationist Criteria of Literary Value: Assessing Kurten's Dance of the Tiger, Auel's The Clan of the Cave Bear, and Golding's The Inheritors163
6Human Nature and Literary Meaning: A Theoretical Model Illustrated with a Critique of Pride and Prejudice187
Pt. 3Darwin and Darwinism
1The Origin of Charles Darwin: A Review of Three Darwin Biographies219
2Modern Darwinism and the Pseudo-Revolutions of Stephen Jay Gould227
References247
Index265

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