ABSTRACT
This chapter shows intertextual theory to be one of the products of Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory. It argues that both the theory, as it emerged in the 1960s, and the sceptical unease with which it was and continues to be greeted, are related to its roots in Darwin’s ‘dangerous idea’. The chapter provides an account of Darwinian evolutionary theory. It outlines the epistemological revolutions the theory instigated. The chapter considers early applications of the scientific theory to literature and culture. It discusses its implications for understandings of consciousness, intelligence, selfhood, creativity, and literary criticism. In 2001, the Canadian experimental poet Christian Bök embarked upon the composition of a work he had already entitled The Xenotext Experiment. Biologists have long relied on bibliographic and textual analogies to convey to a lay audience the aims and procedures of their work. Darwin’s image of ‘a finely graduated chain’ is emblematic of this emphasis on connectivity.
