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CS92PROD
Darwinian Fictions
ENGL 225
Fall 2020 not offered
Crosslisting: SISP 225, AMST 257

This class tracks the discourse surrounding evolutionary science as it circulated through various spheres of American intellectual life in the decades after the Civil War. If the ideas proposed by Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer fundamentally changed the way scientists and politicians understood the natural world and human beings' relation to it, these ideas would also influence the way writers understood the function of literature. Best summed up by Emile Zola's suggestion that, through literature, we are capable of "possess[ing] knowledge of man, scientific knowledge of him, in both his individual and social relations," authors during this period began to explore the literary possibilities of evolutionary science. By reading works of literature alongside influential scientific treatises, this course encourages students to think about the kinds of knowledge literary experience gives us access to, and the relationship between literary knowledge and other disciplinary forms that emerged at the turn of the twentieth century.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA ENGL
Course Format: Lecture / DiscussionGrading Mode: Student Option
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (ENGL)(ENGL-Literature)

Last Updated on MAR-28-2024
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