ABSTRACT
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
part |100 pages
Mapping the Disciplinary Landscape
chapter |12 pages
The Use of Arnold in a Darwinian World
chapter |13 pages
Biology and Poststructuralism
chapter |12 pages
“Theory,” Anti-Theory, and Empirical Criticism
chapter |4 pages
Out of Eden and to the Left
chapter |17 pages
Literary Study and Evolutionary Theory
chapter |6 pages
Pinker, Dickens, and the Functions of Literature
chapter |16 pages
Wilson's Consilience and Literary Study
part |116 pages
Adaptationist Literary Studies
chapter |14 pages
The Deep Structure of Literary Representations
chapter |12 pages
Universals in Literary Study
chapter |17 pages
Human Universals and Literary Meaning
chapter |16 pages
Organism, Environment, and Literature
chapter |23 pages
Adaptationist Criteria of Literary Value
chapter |30 pages
Human Nature and Literary Meaning
part |29 pages
Darwin and Darwinism