Literary Darwinism Or Evolutionary Literary Theory

Darwin in Literature and Science

by Martin Willis

This is the bibliography for my work on Darwin in Literature and Science for my forthcoming Readers Guide to... more This is the bibliography for my work on Darwin in Literature and Science for my forthcoming Readers Guide to Literature and Science. Any suggestions appreciated!

Darwin´s pigeons and the evolution of columbiforms: recapitulation of ancient genes

by Juan Martínez-Gómez

Acta Zoológica Mexicana (n.s.) 25(3): 719-741.  2009.

To commemorate the sesquicentennial of Charles Darwin´s “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection”, we... more To commemorate the sesquicentennial of Charles Darwin´s “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection”, we address an essential topic in this publication. Domestic pigeons were extremely important in shaping Darwin’s theory of evolution: pigeons featured prominently not only in his “Origin of Species”, but also in his treatise on “Variation under Domestication”, in his “Descent of Man” and finally in his “Expression of Emotions”. Darwin saw the process of domestication as solid evidence demonstrating the power of selection. He argued convincingly that all domestic pigeon breeds (some 150 in his day) descended from one ancestral species, the Rock Dove (Columba livia), and that from this single species, humans selected directionally for colors, sizes, shapes, peculiarities of bill shape and length, plumage characteristics and voice qualities. While these domestic races achieved remarkable morphological differentiation under selection in the course of human generations, extant genera of pigeons (Columbiformes) have attained similar traits during the course of natural selection in the wild. We present a comparison of such characters between modern domestic breeds of the Rock Dove, the original Darwin´s Pigeons plus new breeds, and wild pigeon species to encourage further studies on their evolution in the light of molecular techniques not available at Darwin´s time.

Evolutionary Aesthetics: The Evolution of Complex Systems, the Appreciation of Beauty, and the Creation of Art and Literature

by Troy Camplin

"Megtestesült olvasás" - A kognitív narratológia empirikus alapjai

by Márta Horváth

Biophobia: The Verminous Incursion Into Human Cultural Forms

by Matthew Candelaria

Új interdiszciplinaritás. A biológiai irodalom- és kultúraelmélet német változatai

by Márta Horváth

Evolutionary Psychology as a Heuristic in Literary Studies

by Katja Mellmann

published in: N. Saul, S. J. James: The Evolution of Literature, 2011

There has been a great deal of uproar about Darwinian approaches in literary scholarship. Statements range from... more There has been a great deal of uproar about Darwinian approaches in literary scholarship. Statements range from enthusiastic prophecies of a new paradigm for literary studies to acrimonious scoldings of reductionism. Believing that the major challenge is first to find good questions to which evolutionary psychology might provide us with good answers, I outline and critically assess different veins of argumentation as revealed in recent contributions to the field. As an alternative to some simplistic mimeticism in present Literary Darwinism, I put forward the idea of evolutionary psychology as a heuristic theory that serves to resolve defined problems in interpretation and literary theory.

Is Storytelling a Biological Adaptation?

by Katja Mellmann

draft only (published in: Carsten Gansel, Dirk Vanderbeke: Telling Stories. Literature and Evolution, Berlin&Boston: de Gruyter, 2012, pp. 30-49)

Review of Brian Boyd's "On the Origins of Stories"

by Katja Mellmann

[Review of] On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction

by Charles Pence

The Quarterly Review of Biology 86(2):137-138 doi: 10.1086/659913

Adaptive Rhetoric: Ethos and Evolved Behavior in Cicero’s De Oratore

by Alex C. Parrish

Rhetoric: Concord and Controversy, edited by Antonio de Velasco and Melody Lehn. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 2010.

There are striking similarities between the Ciceronian conception of ethos and the behavioral patterns of some social... more There are striking similarities between the Ciceronian conception of ethos and the behavioral patterns of some social animals. To track them could shed light on the contributions evolutionary pressures have made to humanity’s use of ethos in rhetoric. Efforts to establish a reputation for good character are common in the natural world, and this is reflected in Ciceronian rhetorical theory. Through conspicuous displays of altruism and the construction of a positive ethos, animals (including humans) secure benefits from one another, such as food sharing, mating rights, or even legal decisions. Often these advantages make a difference in an individual’s ability to survive and procreate. Thus those animals that secure the goodwill (benevolentiam conciliare) of their fellows are more likely to pass down their genes. Likewise, Cicero places great emphasis on the construction of ethos in oratory, and he employs conspicuous displays of his own when attempting to demonstrate his good character. By studying the underlying evolutionary motivations, we might better understand the importance of ethos in rhetorical situations.

On the origin of the New Woman: Reading Darwin's influence on Sarah Grand's 'Beth Book' (Abstract to the Paper)

by Shantanu Majee

This paper was presented in the international conference on 'The Expanding Universe: Science and Literature in the Nineteenth Century', held at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, between 6th and 8th February, 2010.

This article focuses on the influence that Darwin’s evolutionary theory had generated toward the Victorian... more This article focuses on the influence that Darwin’s evolutionary theory had generated toward the Victorian construction of womanhood with a closed reading of Sarah Grand’s New Woman classic ‘The Beth Book’ (1897). As most of the book deals with the protagonist Beth’s childhood, one explores to realize that the different stages of her transformation presents her body as an object which needs to be formed and developed by the norms of the society. One shall not be quite out of focus to be reminded of Foucault’s study of the modern prison system to illustrate the rethinking of power and its relationship to the body in this context. Foucault called the type of power that he was illustrating “disciplinary power”. We often think of power as operating in a repressive or prohibitive mode, preventing and constraining action. Foucault turns this formulation of power on its head, and argues that contrary to our most held beliefs, power works through our actions making possible certain ways of being and doing. Beth, in a quite similar manner, establishes the very qualities associated with female inferiority as markers of an alternative and equal route to adulthood and grows out of her imposed intellectual infancy to contest the accepted view.

Humans and Houyhnhnms

by Gabriel Ertsgaard

Draft only. I may revise this for publication as either a journal article or a book chapter. My work tends to have the feel of a "well-researched essay," rather than a "research article." Does anyone (Meryl, Jason) have a suggestion regarding the proper venue for a scholar with my stylistic tendencies?

The Houyhnhnms in Gulliver's Travels resemble horses who evolved intelligence. The Yahoos resemble pre-linguistic... more The Houyhnhnms in Gulliver's Travels resemble horses who evolved intelligence. The Yahoos resemble pre-linguistic human ancestors. Evolutionary neuroscience has raised some of the same questions about the limits of human reason as Swift raised through his satire. By applying evolutionary thought to the tale of Gulliver’s last voyage we will come to a better understanding of what both Jonathan Swift and evolutionary science can teach us about what it means to be human.

Evolution eller intentionell design?

by Fredrik Fahlander

Kommentarer til Petter Snekkestad, Darwinistisk arkeologi. Primitive tider 2011 13. årgang, side 167-170.

Cultural Darwinism

by Nathaniel Comfort

Comfort, N. C. (2008). "Cultural Darwinism." The European Legacy 13(5): 623-637.

The recent debate over Intelligent Design (ID) provides an opportunity to examine the pervasiveness and the meaning of... more The recent debate over Intelligent Design (ID) provides an opportunity to examine the pervasiveness and the meaning of Darwinian thinking in modern culture. The latest incarnation of a century-old critique of evolution, ID infuriated critics as a disease of scientific illiteracy. However, examining the debate as cultural history of science suggests that the IDers were not ignorant or stupid, but rather shrewd and disingenuous. They wielded scientific data as a rhetorical weapon, not as truth but as text, to be bent to one’s moral purpose—which in their case was an attack on science itself. In contrast to the scientific critics, I view ID as a symptom, a boil on the neck of a social body infected with anxiety over cultural Darwinism. Though the courts seem to have effectively lanced ID, the infection remains. In an age of Darwinian psychiatry, Darwinian business, Darwinian literature criticism, and even Darwinian anti-Darwinism, some boundary checks on cultural Darwinism would be salutary—not for advancing a conservative political agenda as the ID folks seek to do, but simply for reconciling a faith in reason with a rejection of biological determinism.

Harry Thompson, This Thing of Darkness: Narrative Anchoring

by José Angel García Landa

English version of "Harry Thompson: THIS THING OF DARKNESS: Anclaje narrativo".

This paper provides an "evolutionary" reading of Harry Thompson's novel THIS THING OF DARKNESS, a historical... more This paper provides an "evolutionary" reading of Harry Thompson's novel THIS THING OF DARKNESS, a historical fiction on Darwin's Beagle voyage and the life of Captain FitzRoy. Special attention is paid to the novel's narrative anchoring of its events within the grand narratives of modernity and imperialism, of scientific and cultural development, and of human evolution at large.