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Reflecting on Darwin
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Reflecting on Darwin book
Reflecting on Darwin
DOI link for Reflecting on Darwin
Reflecting on Darwin book
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ABSTRACT
Taking up the historical evolution of Darwin and his theories and the cultural responses they have inspired, Reflecting on Darwin poses the following questions: 'How are the apparatuses in the mid-nineteenth century and at the turn of the twenty-first century interconnected with bio-scientific paradigms in art, literature, culture and science?' 'How are naturalism, determinism and Darwinism - the eugenics of the nineteenth century and the genetic coding of the twentieth century - positioned, embodied and staged in various media configurations and media genres?' and 'How have particular media apparatuses formed, displaced or stabilized the various concepts of humankind in the framework of evolutionary theory?' Ranging from the early circulation of Darwin’s ideas to the present, this interdisciplinary collection pays particular attention to Darwin’s postmillennial reception. Beginning with an overview of the historical development of contemporary ecological and ethical fears, Reflecting on Darwin then turns to Darwin’s influence on contemporary media, neo-Victorian literature and culture, science fiction literature and film, and contemporary theory. In examining the plurality of ways in which Darwin has been rewritten and reappropriated, this unique volume both mirrors and inspects the complexity of recent debates in Victorian and neo-Victorian studies.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter |14 pages
Introduction: Cultural Reflections on Darwin and Their Historical Evolution
part |2 pages
Part 1 The Cultural Evolution of Darwin’s Thought
chapter 1|24 pages
‘I differ widely from you’: Darwin, Galton and the Culture of Eugenics
chapter 2|16 pages
Evolution, Heredity and Visuality: Reading Faces with Thomas Hardy
chapter 3|16 pages
‘How like us is that ugly brute, the ape!’: Darwin’s ‘Ape Theory’ and Its Traces in Victorian Children’s Magazines
chapter 4|16 pages
Gender Trouble as Monkey Business: Changing Roles of Simian Characters in Literature and Film between 1870 and 1930
part |2 pages
Part 2 Darwin’s Cultural Resonance Today
chapter 6|16 pages
(Mis-)Representations of Darwin’s Origin and Evolutionary Master Narratives in The Sea (2005) and The Secret Scripture (2008)
chapter 7|16 pages
Evolution for Better or for Worse? Science Fiction Literature and Film and the Public Debate on the Future of Humanity
part |2 pages
Part 3 Darwin as ‘Pop Star’ of Contemporary Theory