After Darwin: Literature, Theory, and Criticism in the Twenty-First Century

by Devin Griffiths (Editor), Deanna Kreisel (Editor)

Overview

Creative storytelling is the beating heart of Darwin's science. All of Darwin's writings drew on information gleaned from a worldwide network of scientific research and correspondence, but they hinge on moments in which Darwin asks his reader to imagine how specific patterns came to be over time, spinning yarns filled with protagonists and antagonists, crises, triumphs, and tragedies. His fictions also forged striking new possibilities for the interpretation of human societies and their relation to natural environments. This volume gathers an international roster of scholars to ask what Darwin's writing offers future of literary scholarship and critical theory, as well as allied fields like history, art history, philosophy, gender studies, disability studies, the history of race, aesthetics, and ethics. It speaks to anyone interested in the impact of Darwin on the humanities, including literary scholars, undergraduate and graduate students, and general readers interested in Darwin's continuing influence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781009181150
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/15/2022
Series:	After Series
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

Devin Griffiths is an Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature. His book, The Age of Analogy (2016) was a finalist for the BARS, BSLS, and NVSA book prizes. His work has appeared in Critical Inquiry, Victorian Studies, ELH, the History of Humanities, and Book History. He's now working on a study of ecocriticism and the energy humanities.

Deanna Kreisel is Associate Professor of English at the University of Mississippi. She is the author of Economic Woman: Demand, Gender, and Narrative Closure in Eliot and Hardy, and has published articles in PMLA, Representations, ELH, Novel, Victorian Studies, Nineteenth Century Literature, and elsewhere. Her current book project is on utopia and sustainability in Victorian culture.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction. After Darwin: Ecology, posthumanism, and aesthetics in the twenty-first century Devin Griffiths and Deanna Kreisel; Part I. Environments after Darwin: 2. Darwin after nature: Evolution in an age of extinction Jesse Oak Taylor; 3. Darwin and animal studies Caroline Hovanec; 4. Darwin's birdsong: Sound studies and Darwinian aesthetics Miranda Butler; 5. Darwin and the anthropocene Allen MacDuffie; Part II. Differences after Darwin: 6. Disability after Darwin Travis Chi Wing Lau; 7. Race after Darwin B. Ricardo Brown; 8. Darwin under domestication Kathleen Frederickson; 9. Feminism at war: Sexual selection, Darwinism, and fin-de-siècle fiction Carol Colatrella; 10. The survival of the unfit Wai Chee Dimock; Part III: Humanism after Darwin: 11. Darwin's human history Ian Duncan; 12. Conscience after Darwin Patrick Fessenbecker and Nikolaj Nottelmann; 13. Darwin, the sublime and the chronology of looking Alexis Harley; 14. Instinctive moral actions: Darwin and the ethics of biology Angelique Richardson; 15. Darwinian analogies in thinking about art and culture Haun Saussy; 16. Afterword George Levine.