Darwin and Faulkner's Novels: Evolution and Southern Fiction

by M. Wainwright

Overview

This interdisciplinary volume examines the entry of Charles Darwin's theories of evolution into American intellectual life and the work of William Faulkner.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137362889
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	10/17/2013
Edition description:	2008
Pages:	243
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Michael Wainwright is Lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK. Twice winner of the Faulkner Conference 'Call for Papers,' Wainwright is also the author of Faulkner's Gamble: Chess and Literature (2011), Toward a Sociobiological Hermeneutic: Darwinian Essays on Literature (2012), and articles for the Mississippi Quarterly, Brief Chronicles, and Papers on Language and Literature, in addition to chapters in Faulkner and the Ecology of the South (2005) and Faulkner's Sexualities (2009).

Table of Contents

Looking Across the Atlantic Hand in Hand with the Old Gentleman The Complex Temple of Sexual Politics Pangenesis and Southern Thought From Race to Ecology Philosophical Frontiers The Enemy Within Self-interest, Cooperation, and Beyond

Editorial Reviews

A CHOICE Review of Books Outstanding Academic Title!

"An important contribution to Faulkner studies and Southern studies by complicating the standard political view of the South as a reactionary, antimodernist, and fundamentalist region in the nation." - Modern Fiction Studies

"Wainwright's groundbreaking study moves from a careful reading of Faulkner in the context of the South's reception of Darwinian ideas to a fully-worked interpretation of his work in terms of a philosophically elaborated, evolutionary aesthetic. Whether dealing with the thematics of 'blood' and race, natural selection, environmentalism, or the ethics of the 'Prisoner's Dilemma', he offers a challenging interpretation of an oeuvre which he inhabits with both passion and mastery." - Tim Armstrong, Professor of Modern English and American Literature, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK

"Faulkner's intuitive naturalism articulated itself in the evolutionary ideas available in his culture. Wainwright gives an intelligent and densely documented account of Faulkner's engagements with these ideas. By adopting 'an evolutionary hermeneutic,' Wainwright gains new angles of access into Faulkner's figurations of inheritance, sexual politics, racial consciousness, and ecological awareness. His interpretive reflections culminate in a meditative dialogue with Faulkner on the themes of human rapacity and moral aspiration." - Joseph Carroll, author of Evolution and Literary Theory and Literary Darwinism: Evolution, Human Nature, and Literature

From the Publisher