American Classics: Evolutionary Perspectives

Judith P. Saunders

Open Access Published by Academic Studies Press 2018

American Classics

Evolutionary Perspectives

Judith P. Saunders
Funded by: Knowledge Unlatched

In the series Evolution, Cognition, and the Arts

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781618117670

Overview
Contents

About this book

This book examines selected works in the American literary tradition from an evolutionary perspective. Individual essays address figures ranging from Benjamin Franklin to Billy Collins, targeting a variety of fitness-related issues—courtship, nepotism, competition, cooperation, status, and deception, for example—in the context of both physical and social environment.

Author / Editor information

Judith P. Saunders is Professor of English at Marist College in New York State. She is the author of The Poetry of Charles Tomlinson: Border Lines and Reading Edith Wharton through a Darwinian Lens: Evolutionary Biological Issues in Her Fiction.

Reviews

William E. Cain:

“American Classics: Evolutionary Perspectives is a very interesting and discerning study, cogently argued, well-written, propelled by Saunders’s knowledge of theory and research in evolutionary biology, post-Darwin. She has made a noteworthy contribution to evolutionary criticism, and, more, generally, to our understanding of American literary and cultural history. American Classics also has important—and controversial—implications for scholarship and teaching. … In American Classics, Saunders sets out, with special skill and distinction, an array of textual interpretations, close readings of American authors, a detailed series of model case studies that are stimulating and persuasive. She convinces me that her approach can make familiar literary texts feel new, reanimating them, impelling us to peruse and ponder them in a new light. … I look forward to the next stage of her research, and to the new directions in the field of evolutionary literary criticism that she is expertly helping to chart and explore.” —William E. Cain, Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture, Vol. 3, No. 1

Paul Crumbley:

“As Saunders makes clear at the outset, her aim is to offer ‘an accessible introduction to Darwinian literary critical methodology in tandem with new insights into acknowledged classics’ (x). This is precisely what she does with admirable clarity and grace. To assist readers not familiar with Darwinian methodology, Saunders provides a succinct glossary of essential terms that matches up nicely with the general approach she spells out in her brief, well-focused introduction. … Teachers seeking to shake up predictable discussions of classic works will find Saunders’s interpretations immensely useful and entertaining. This is not to suggest that Saunders is not a serious scholar whose work contributes to literary scholarship. Quite the contrary, her essays are carefully researched, articulate additions to American literary naturalism that offer important insights into the evolutionary forces that inform literary texts. … Readers will find American Classics: Evolutionary Perspectives every bit as thought provoking as it is delightful.” —Paul Crumbley, Utah State University, Studies in American Naturalism Vol. 13, No. 2

“Judith Saunders’s book shows just how good evolutionary literary criticism can be. She convincingly demonstrates that an evolutionary critic can generate new insights about literary works to which many generations of scholars have already devoted critical attention. Moreover, she unites a fine literary sensibility with special gifts for writing forceful and evocative prose. Her book belongs to that very small set of interpretive critical works that give specifically literary pleasure in their own right.”

— Joseph Carroll, Curators' Professor of English, University of Missouri—St. Louis, editor in chief of Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Table of Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vi
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Glossary Publicly Available Download PDF	viii
Introduction Publicly Available Download PDF	x
1. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: The Story of a Successful Social Animal Open Access Download PDF	1
2. Nepotism in Hawthorne’s “My Kinsman, Major Molineux” Open Access Download PDF	23
3. Biophilia in Thoreau’s Walden Open Access Download PDF	37
4. Bateman’s Principle in “Song of Myself”: Whitman Celebrates Male Ardency Open Access Download PDF	61
5. Maladaptive Behavior and Auctorial Design: Huck Finn’s Pap Open Access Download PDF	78
6. Hell’s Fury: Female Mate-Retention Strategies in Wharton’s “Pomegranate Seed” and Ethan Frome Open Access Download PDF	97
7. Male Reproductive Strategies in Sherwood Anderson’s “The Untold Lie” Open Access Download PDF	126
8. The Great Gatsby: An Unusual Case of Mate Poaching Open Access Download PDF	138
9. Female Sexual Strategies in the Poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay Open Access Download PDF	175
10. Philosophy and Fitness: Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” and The Sun Also Rises Open Access Download PDF	204
11. Paternal Confidence in Zora Neale Hurston’s “The Gilded Six-Bits” Open Access Download PDF	226
12. The Role of the Arts in Male Courtship Display: Billy Collins’s “Serenade” Open Access Download PDF	246
Conclusion Open Access Download PDF	253
Works Cited Open Access Download PDF	263
Index Open Access Download PDF	283

Language: English
Publisher: Academic Studies Press
Audience: College/higher education;Professional and scholarly;General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 302

eBook

Published: July 24, 2018
ISBN: 9781618117670