Charles Darwin's Looking Glass

The book offers comparative analysis of diverse Darwinism-inspired discourses such as post-modern novels, science fiction, popular science and nature films. Special attention is paid to Darwin's problem with human ancestry, Darwinism and the humanities, and the lives of Charles and Emma Darwin as contemporary myths.

Autorentext

Dominika Oramus is professor at the University of Warsaw. She teaches at the Institute of English Studies. Her special interests are 20th century British fiction and the poetics of postmodernism, Angela Carter and J.G. Ballard.

Klappentext

The book offers a comparative analysis of diverse Darwinism-inspired discourses such as post-modern novels, science fiction, popular science and nature films. Analysing the uses of the evolutionary discourse in recent literature and films, the study demonstrates how natural science influences the contemporary humanities and how literary conventions are used to make scientific and popular-science texts intelligible and attractive. Charles Darwin s Looking Glass shows how and why today s culture gazes upon the myth of Darwin, his theory, and his life in order to find its own reflection.

Inhalt
Contents: Recent Fiction and Non-Fiction about Charles Darwin and Emma Darwin Echoes of the Mid-19th-Century Spiritual Crisis and the Motif of Human Evolution in Contemporary Texts referencing Charles Darwin Darwin's Problem with Human Ancestry as Reflected in Recent Fiction Darwinism and the Humanities.