Evolution and Literary Theory [Hardcover]

Joseph Carroll (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1994

Carroll anatomizes the irrationalism of current literary theory with surgical precision. In a concise, lucid prose, he lays bare the sophistries at the heart of the doctrines propounded by Derrida, Foucault, Jameson, Greenblatt, Eagleton, J. Hillis Miller, Fish, and many others. In opposition to the textualism and indeterminacy that constitute the central doctrines of poststructuralism, Carroll affiliates himself with a realist and naturalist tradition of thought that runs from Darwin and Huxley, through Leslie Stephen and Thorstein Veblen, to Konrad Lorenz and Karl Popper. He offers a comprehensive synthesis of current evolutionary theory in the human sciences, and he shows why the evolutionary paradigm provides the only adequate source for a modern theory of culture.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Joseph Carroll's Evolution and Literary Theory is a courageous and much needed attempt to do battle with the dragon of social constructivism. Although, as its title suggests, the book focuses on literary theory, its scope is really much wider."—Washington Times

"Carroll is a man with big ideas and a big subject. If he is interested in literary criticism, and indeed he is, he is also interested in running this back to the moment of creation and looking on ahead to what may come to pass in the centuries ahead. In short, he has an enormous philosophical thesis."—Cleanth Brooks

"Evolution and Literary Theory is indeed a work of considerable erudition, and also a work of substantial engagement, partly because of the quality of the author's openness of mind, reasonableness of argument, and clarity of writing. . . . In recollection of Darwin's description of The Origin of Species, Carroll's book is one long argument against poststructuralism in the light of what is now known about Darwinian naturalism. For, contrary to other criticisms that might be made about poststructuralism, Carroll has an alternative for those literary critics who find poststructuralism inadequate or simply wrong-headed. . . . It is the Darwinian naturalism that is the central contribution of Carroll."—Carl N. Degler

About the Author

Joseph Carroll is the author of The Cultural Theory of Matthew Arnold and Wallace Stevens' Supreme Fiction.  He is Professor of English at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 536 pages
• Publisher: University of Missouri; 1 edition (February 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826209793
• ISBN-13: 978-0826209795
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #857,390 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I received my doctorate in Comparative Literature from the University of California at Berkeley in 1981. I'm currently Curators' Professor of English at the University of Missouri, St. Louis. I published two traditional scholarly and critical books: The Cultural Theory of Matthew Arnold (1982), and Wallace Stevens' Supreme Fiction: A New Romanticism (1987). Then, as an alternative to both traditional humanism and poststructuralism, I began integrating literary theory with the evolutionary human sciences. Works in that vein include Evolution and Literary Theory (1995), Literary Darwinism: Evolution, Human Nature, and Literature (2004), and Reading Human Nature: Literary Darwinism in Theory and Practice (2011). I also produced an edition of Darwin's Origin of Species (Broadview, 2003). In company with Brian Boyd and Jonathan Gottschall, I edited a collection of essays: Evolution, Literature, and Film: A Reader (2010). With Alice Andrews, I co-edited the first two volumes of The Evolutionary Review: Art, Science, Culture. I've guest-edited a special evolutionary issue of the online journal Politics and Culture (2010, issue 1). More information is available at my website: http://www.umsl.edu/~carrolljc/