Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Darwin and Literature

Darwin and Literature

Moss, Leonard

Hardcover

Literary Criticism

ISBN10: 0739185322
ISBN13: 9780739185322
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: Jun 25 2014
Pages: 188
Weight: 0.89
Height: 0.53 Width: 6.29 Depth: 9.10
Language: English

Although their vocabularies differ, biologists, biblical authors, and playwrights describe the paradox that Charles Darwin outlines in The Origin of Species (1859) when he observed the coexistence of a drive for permanence and a contrasting capacity to modify, deviate from, or transform established identities. The Torah; Books of Ecclesiastes, Job, and Matthew; and plays by Shakespeare, O'Neill, and Beckett embody a convergence of constancy and change. Their principle literary mechanisms--their challenge-response narrative design, rhetorical repetitions, and metaphorical associations--translate a biological contradiction into a moral dilemma that leads to recurring Darwinian outcomes. An evolutionary process becomes the template for the progressions and problems of belief systems transmitted by masterpieces of Western literature. Surprisingly, most biblical writing celebrates an outcome entirely consonant with the narratives of evolution.

This study deals primarily with characters and their communities in biblical and tragic texts who toil mightily, usually with limited success, to integrate the certainty of inherited dogma with the originality of useful change. Through this study, the author concludes that Darwin's insight can expand an understanding of literature, and literary analysis will support Darwin's insight.

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