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Rethinking the Human in the Darwinian Novel

By Niall Sreenan

Rethinking the Human in the Darwinian Novel Contemporary literature

Rethinking the Human in the Darwinian Novel

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Description
Charles Darwin's theories of evolution began a revolution in thought, displacing the human from the centre of the natural order and consigning it to the same 'struggle for life' as its animal ancestors. This profoundly discomforting truth created shock waves in literature and culture which reverberate still.Sreenan revisits the legacy of Darwin's thought in works by Thomas Hardy and Émile Zola, and in utopian fictions by Samuel Butler, Aldous Huxley, and the more contemporary Michel Houellebecq. Tracing how narrative fiction has responded to humanity's traumatic dethronement, the book explores themes of hereditary fate, violence, sexual compe­tition, and utopian desire. Drawing on an array of theoretical resources - from Deleuzian biophilosophy to psychoanalysis - Sreenan reveals how both literary realism and utopianism stage a tension between Darwinian pessimism and an affirm­ation of human existence.Niall Sreenan is Lecturer in Comparative Literature at the University of St Andrews.
Product details
Number of Pages:
184
Release Date:
2025-12-08
Publication Date:
2025-12-08
Publisher:
Legenda
Languages:
Original: English
ISBN10:
1781888477
ISBN13:
9781781888476
Weight:
507 g
Height:
175 cm
Width:
250 cm
Thickness:
15 cm
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