English Fiction and the Evolution of Language, 1850-1914

Erscheinungsjahr 2017
ISBN: 978-1-107-49848-8
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, Band 101, 248 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 368 g

Reihe: Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture

Victorian science changed language from a tool into a natural phenomenon, evolving independently of its speakers. Will Abberley explores how science and fiction interacted in imagining different stories of language evolution. Popular narratives of language progress clashed with others of decay and degeneration. Furthermore, the blurring of language evolution with biological evolution encouraged Victorians to re-imagine language as a mixture of social convention and primordial instinct. Abberley argues that fiction by authors such as Charles Kingsley, Thomas Hardy and H. G. Wells not only reflected these intellectual currents, but also helped to shape them. Genres from utopia to historical romance supplied narrative models for generating thought experiments in the possible pasts and futures of language. Equally, fiction that explored the instinctive roots of language intervened in debates about language standardisation and scientific objectivity. These textual readings offer new perspectives on twenty-first-century discussions about language evolution and the language of science.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Abberley, Will

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturgeschichte und Literaturkritik
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Wissenschafts- und Universitätsgeschichte
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Formalen Wissenschaften & Technik
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften Evolutionsbiologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: language under a microscope; 1. The future of language in prophetic fiction; 2. Primitive language in imperial, prehistoric and scientific romances; 3. Organic orality and the historical romance; 4. Instinctive signs: nature and culture in dialogue; Conclusion: widening the lens; Bibliography.

Über Autor(innen)

Abberley, Will
Will Abberley is a research fellow for the Faculty of English Language and Literature, University of Oxford, exploring concepts of natural mimicry and deception in Victorian literature and the life sciences.