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\"While much has been written about the impact of Darwin's theories on U.S. culture, and countless scholarly collections have been devoted to the science of evolution, few have addressed the specific details of Darwin's theories as a cultural force affecting U.S. writers. America's Darwin fills this gap and features a range of critical approaches that examine U.S. textual responses to Darwin's works.The scholars in this collection represent a range of disciplines--literature, history of science, women's studies, geology, biology, entomology, and anthropology. All pay close attention to the specific forms that Darwinian evolution took in the United States, engaging not only with Darwin's most famous works, such as On the Origin of Species, but also with less familiar works, such as The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Each contributor considers distinctive social, cultural, and intellectual conditions that affected the reception and dissemination of evolutionary thought, from before the publication of On the Origin of Species to the early years of the twenty-first century. These essays engage with the specific details and language of a wide selection of Darwin's texts, treating his writings as primary sources essential to comprehending the impact of Darwinian language on American writers and thinkers. This careful engagement with the texts of evolution enables us to see the broad points of its acceptance and adoption in the American scene; this approach also highlights the ways in which writers, reformers, and others reconfigured Darwinian language to suit their individual purposes. America's Darwin demonstrates the many ways in which writers and others fit themselves to a narrative of evolution whose dominant motifs are contingency and uncertainty. Collectively, the authors make the compelling case that the interpretation of evolutionary theory in the U.S. has always shifted in relation to prevailing cultural anxieties\"-- Provided by publisher.

First published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company. 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.

Offering provocative readings of Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh, Clough’s Amours de Voyage, and Browning’s The Ring and the Book, Clinton Machann brings to bear the ideas and methods of literary Darwinism to shed light on the central issue of masculinity in the Victorian epic. This critical approach enables Machann to take advantage of important research in evolutionary psychology, cognitive science, anthropology, among other scientific fields, and to bring the concept of human nature into his discussions of the poems. The importance of the Victorian long poem as a literary genre is reviewed in the introduction, followed by transformative close readings of the poems that engage with questions of gender, particularly representations of masculinity and the prevalence of male violence. Machann contextualizes his reading within the poets’ views on social, philosophical, and religious issues, arguing that the impulses, drives, and tendencies of human nature, as well as the historical and cultural context, influenced the writing and thus must inform the interpretation of the Victorian epic.

First published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor Francis, an informa company.

Victorians were fascinated by the flood of strange new worlds that science was opening to them. Exotic plants and animals poured into London from all corners of the Empire, while revolutionary theories such as the radical idea that humans might be descended from apes drew crowds to heated debates. Men and women of all social classes avidly collected scientific specimens for display in their homes and devoured literature about science and its practitioners. Victorian Science in Context captures the essence of this fascination, charting the many ways in which science influenced and was influenced by the larger Victorian culture. Contributions from leading scholars in history, literature, and the history of science explore questions such as: What did science mean to the Victorians? For whom was Victorian science written? What ideological messages did it convey? The contributors show how practical concerns interacted with contextual issues to mold Victorian science—which in turn shaped much of the relationship between modern science and culture.

Energy Darwinism is a metaphor used in economic discourse that proposes markets will naturally become greener and cleaner as fossil fuel costs increase. Influenced by Kenneth Burke's dramatism, I perform a close reading of the metaphor to analyze its presence in two Citigroup reports. Based on this reading, I argue that the Energy Darwinism metaphor anthropomorphizes markets as acting subjects whose economic autonomy should not be violated and supports the cleansing of industry's environmental sins. These features of Energy Darwinism construct what I call neoliberal piety, which frames environmental restoration not as inherently valuable but as a by-product of economic success and technological progress. The Energy Darwinism metaphor provides an important case study for analyzing contemporary energy discourse, the rhetorical obstacles that prevent imagining sustainable futures, and the ways we might rework neoliberal assumptions in service of those sustainable futures.

Films seem to be an essential form of entertainment in modern society, but as the literature review shows, the film industry is involved in subtle distortions of cultural, religious, and political ideas. Regardless of whether films are publicly or privately funded, there are many creative ways to influence or alter perceptions, to educate audiences, to stir irrational fears, and swiftly promote certain ideologies. Therefore, this study examines the socioeconomic narratives present in the Blade Runner film series and their connections to economic theories. The research aims to analyze the portrayal of capitalism, socialism, Malthusianism, Social Darwinism, and ecologism within a dystopian context, focusing on themes such as wealth distribution, labor exploitation, technological disruption, and environmental collapse. Using a qualitative methodology, the study employs socioeconomic content analysis, more specific thematic coding, discourse analysis, semiotic interpretation, historical contextualization, and audience reception assessment. The findings indicate that Blade Runner embodies Malthusian concerns about overpopulation, resource depletion, and environmental degradation. The films portray capitalism as a system that reinforces social stratification, in which technological advances serve the interests of elites while deepening the oppression of the working class. Immigration is framed as a destabilizing force, rooted in historical anxieties about cultural identity and economic competition, rather than being recognized for its real contributions to cultural exchange and economic growth. Furthermore, the films invoke the myth of the noble savage, suggesting that salvation lies in an outsider who remains untainted by capitalist corruption. Through a socioeconomic analysis of the Blade Runner series, this study highlights Hollywood's influence in shaping dystopian fears and critiques of contemporary economic systems.

This paper analyzes the writings of the American Orientalist William Elliot Griffis (1843–1928) and the Canadian scholar-missionary James Scarth Gale (1863–1937), two of the most influential voices in establishing an image of Korea for a Western, Anglophone audience during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Their writings demonstrate typical strains of Social Darwinism and Christian triumphalism, reflecting dominant Western discourses on Asia at the time. However, divergent views on the place and significance of “cosmopolitan culture” in a modernizing Korea suggest a more complicated legacy. Gale, due to his adoption of a “cosmopolitan” ideology oriented toward Hanmun literature closely linked with the Neo-Confucian episteme, approached modernization and the material benefits brought by Japanese colonialism in a more ambivalent manner. Whereas Griffis tended to essentialize modernization as necessarily intertwined with Westernization and Christianization, praising Japan and offering hope for Korea in reaching an objective yardstick of civilization, Gale continually questioned whether such a measure of civilization was indeed appropriate for Korea, a country which was essentially Confucianist and cosmopolitan in orientation. Thus, although both scholars demonstrate a critical turn against Japan following the March First Movement, Gale’s critiques represent the confirmation of lingering doubts as to the compatibility of traditionalist Korea and materialist Japan. On the other hand, Griffis’ criticisms impugn Japan for failing to fulfill the promise of full civilization and modernity. These approaches to Asian modernization suggest a further reevaluation of classical Orientalist tropes and invite us to explore instead the potential embeddedness of Anglophone discourse within the pre-modern Sino-barbarian (Hwa-i 華夷) paradigm.

As the founder and leading practitioner of \"literary Darwinism,\" Joseph Carroll remains at the forefront of a major movement in literary studies. Signaling key new developments in this approach, Reading Human Nature contains trenchant theoretical essays, innovative empirical research, sweeping surveys of intellectual history, and sophisticated interpretations of specific literary works, including The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wuthering Heights, The Mayor of Casterbridge, and Hamlet. Evolutionists in the social sciences have succeeded in delineating basic motives but have given far too little attention to the imagination. Carroll makes a compelling case that literary Darwinism is not just another \"school\" or movement in literary theory. It is the moving force in a fundamental paradigm change in the humanities—a revolution. Psychologists and anthropologists have provided massive evidence that human motives and emotions are rooted in human biology. Since motives and emotions enter into all the products of a human imagination, humanists now urgently need to assimilate a modern scientific understanding of \"human nature.\" Integrating evolutionary social science with literary humanism, Carroll offers a more complete and adequate understanding of human nature.