Darwinian Fictions
ENGL 225
Spring 2022 not offered
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| 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. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL |
| Course Format: Lecture / Discussion | Grading Mode: |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (ENGL)(ENGL-Literature) |
Major Readings:
Darwin, Charles, ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES
Spencer, Herbert, PRINCIPLES OF BIOLOGY
Zola, Emile, THE EXPERIMENTAL NOVEL
Crane, Stephen, MAGGIE: A GIRL OF THE STREETS
Chopin, Kate, THE AWAKENING
Norris, Frank, MCTEAGUE
Dunbar, Paul Laurence, THE SPORT OF THE GODS
Stein, Gertrude, THREE LIVES
Wright, Richard, NATIVE SON
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Examinations and Assignments:
Three 5-7 page papers, presentations |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
This course fulfills the Literary History II requirement and contributes to the American Literature and Theory and Literary Forms concentrations for the English major. |
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