skip to content
The descent of love : Darwin and the theory of sexual selection in American fiction, 1871-1926 Preview this item
ClosePreview this item
  • Preview this Item (Questia)

The descent of love : Darwin and the theory of sexual selection in American fiction, 1871-1926

Author: Bert Bender
Publisher: Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, ©1996.
Edition/Format:   Book : EnglishView all editions and formats
Summary:
Upon its publication in 1871, Charles Darwin's The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex sent shock waves through the scientific community and the public at large. In an original and persuasive study, Bert Bender demonstrates that it is this treatise, rather than any of Darwin's earlier works, that provoked the most immediate and vigorous response from American fiction writers.

These authors embraced and

In The Descent of Love, Bender carefully rereads the works of William Dean Howells, Henry James, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Sarah Orne Jewett, Kate Chopin, Harold Frederic, Charles W. Chesnutt, Edith Wharton, and Ernest Hemingway, teasing from them a startling but utterly convincing preoccupation with questions of sexual selection.

Competing for readership as novelists who best grasped the "real" nature of human love, these writers also participated in a heated social debate over racial and sexual differences and the nature of sex itself.

Influenced more by The Descent of Man than by the Origin of Species, Bender's novelists built upon Darwin's anthropological and zoological materials to anatomize their characters' courtship behavior, returning consistently to concerns with physical beauty, natural dominance, and the power to select a mate.  Read more...

Rating:

(not yet rated) 0 with reviews - Be the first.

 

Find a copy in the library

Retrieving... Finding libraries that hold this item...

Details

Additional Physical Format: Online version:
Bender, Bert.
Descent of love.
Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, c1996
(OCoLC)605361308
Named Person: Charles Darwin; Charles Darwin; Charles Darwin
Document Type: Book
All Authors / Contributors: Bert Bender
ISBN: 0812233441 9780812233445
OCLC Number: 33440929
Description: xvi, 440 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
Contents: The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex: The Darwinian Unknown in American Literary History --
Sexual Selection --
The Descent of Love --
Recurrent Problems, Themes, and Scenes in the Courtship Novels --
1871-1926 --
1. Evolutionary Anthropology and Sexual Selection in William Dean Howells's Their Wedding Journey --
2. Courting Design: Chance, Choice, and Sexual Difference in Howells's Courtship Novels of the 1870s --
3. Darwinian Problems in A Modern Instance: Heredity, Primitive Marriage, and Male Sexual Aggression --
4. Henry James and The Descent of Man: "The Loves of the Quadrupeds" in "The Madonna of the Future" and Roderick Hudson --
5. Psychological Darwinism in The Portrait of a Lady --
6. Darwin and "The Natural History of Doctresses": The Sex War Between Howells, Phelps, Jewett, and James --
7. Kate Chopin's Quarrel with Darwin before The Awakening --
8. The Teeth of Desire: The Awakening and The Descent of Man
Responsibility: Bert Bender.

Abstract:

Upon its publication in 1871, Charles Darwin's The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex sent shock waves through the scientific community and the public at large. In an original and persuasive study, Bert Bender demonstrates that it is this treatise, rather than any of Darwin's earlier works, that provoked the most immediate and vigorous response from American fiction writers.

These authors embraced and incorporated Darwin's theories, insights, and language, creating an increasingly dark and violent view of sexual love in American realist literature.

In The Descent of Love, Bender carefully rereads the works of William Dean Howells, Henry James, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Sarah Orne Jewett, Kate Chopin, Harold Frederic, Charles W. Chesnutt, Edith Wharton, and Ernest Hemingway, teasing from them a startling but utterly convincing preoccupation with questions of sexual selection.

Competing for readership as novelists who best grasped the "real" nature of human love, these writers also participated in a heated social debate over racial and sexual differences and the nature of sex itself.

Influenced more by The Descent of Man than by the Origin of Species, Bender's novelists built upon Darwin's anthropological and zoological materials to anatomize their characters' courtship behavior, returning consistently to concerns with physical beauty, natural dominance, and the power to select a mate.

Reviews

User-contributed reviews
Retrieving weRead reviews...
Retrieving GoodReads reviews...
Retrieving Amazon reviews...

Tags

Be the first.
Confirm this request

You may have already requested this item. Please select Ok if you would like to proceed with this request anyway.

Close Window

Please sign in to WorldCat 

Don't have an account? You can easily create a free account.