Literary Darwinism: Evolution, Human Nature, and Literature [Hardcover]

Joseph Carroll is Professor of English at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He has published books on Matthew Arnold and Wallace Stevens. In Evolution and Literary Theory (1995) and in his subsequent writing, he has spearheaded the movement to integrate literary study with Darwinian psychology. If you want to know what's going to be the next big topic in literary theory, read this powerful new collection of essays by the author of Evolution and Literary Theory. In Literary Darwinism Joseph Carroll argues that we should stop basing our view of literature on penseurs who have long been obsolete in their own fields, and listen instead to what modern science has to tell us about that forbidden topic human nature.
. -- Robin Headlam Wells, University of Surrey Roehampton
A brilliant exposition of a new paradigm in literary criticism which, because it is among the first to bridge modern biology and the humanities, has a feel of permanence to it.
. -- Edward O. Wilson
A series of clear-sighted and far-sighted views of early and modern literary critical and evolutionary thought, as seen from the high ridge Joseph Carroll has climbed to in the most promising new territory in literary studies. -- Brian Boyd
These authoritative writings of Joseph Carroll focus, update, and solidify the insights of his landmark work, Evolution and Literary Theory. Collected into one volume, they now can serve as a handbook for students, critics, and academics, an invaluable introduction to the general theory and concrete practice of Darwinian literary analysis. -- Harold Fromm, co-editor of The Ecocriticism Reader
Carroll's eye is that of an extremely perceptive literary critic. In fact, I would judge him to be one of the most acute and knowledgeable readers of fiction I've ever encountered. -- Denis Dutton, University of Canterbury, New Zealand,