Rethinking the Human in the Darwinian Novel

Zola, Hardy, and Utopian Fiction

von Niall Sreenan

184 Seiten, Hardcover

Kurzbeschreibung des Verlags

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.

• Reihe: Studies In Comparative Literature
• Themen: Biographie, Literatur und Literaturwissenschaft Geschichte und Kritik Literaturwissenschaft, allgemein 1800 bis 1900
• ISBN: 9781781888476
• Sprache: Englisch
• Erscheinungsdatum: 08.12.2025
• Größe: 250 x 175 mm
• Verlag: Legenda