Edith Wharton's Evolutionary Conception

Darwinian Allegory in the Major Novels
1. Auflage 2010
ISBN: 978-0-415-88006-0
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 232 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 343 g

Reihe: Studies in Major Literary Authors

Edith Wharton's "Evolutionary Conception" investigates Edith Wharton's engagement with evolutionary theory in The House of Mirth, The Custom of the Country, and The Age of Innocence. The book also examines The Descent of Man, The Fruit of the Tree, Twilight Sleep, and The Children to show that Wharton's interest in biology and sociology was central to the thematic and formal elements of her fiction. Ohler argues that Wharton depicts the complex interrelations of New York's gentry and socioeconomic elite from a perspective informed by the main concerns of evolutionary thought. Concentrating on her use of ideas she encountered in works by Darwin, Herbert Spencer, and T.H. Huxley, his readings of Wharton's major novels demonstrate the literary configuration of scientific ideas she drew on and, in some cases, disputed. R.W.B. Lewis writes that Wharton 'was passionately addicted to scientific study': this book explores the ramifications of this fact for her fictional sociobiology.
The book explores the ways in which Edith Wharton's scientific interests shaped her analysis of class, affected the formal properties of her fiction, and resulted in her negative valuation of social Darwinism.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ohler, Paul J.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1 Metaphors of “Instinct and Tradition”; Chapter 2 “Blind Inherited Scruples”: Lily Bart's Evolutionary Ethics; Chapter 3 The Incoherence of “Progress” in The Custom of the Country; Chapter 4 Newland Archer's “Hieroglyphic World”; ConclusionThe Limits of Wharton's “Objective Faculty”;

Über Autor(innen)

Paul J. Ohler