{"product_id":"american-classics-evolutionary-perspectives-9781618117663","title":"American Classics: Evolutionary Perspectives","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis collection of essays examines selected works in the American literary tradition from an evolutionary perspective. Using an interdisciplinary framework to pose new questions about long admired, much discussed texts, the collection as a whole provides an introduction to Darwinian literary critical methodology. Individual essays feature a variety of figures—Benjamin Franklin to Billy Collins—targeting fitness-related issues ranging from sexual strategies and parental investment to cheating and deception. Attention is paid to the physical and social environments in which fictional characters are placed, including the influence of cultural–historical conditions on resource acquisition, status-building, competition, and reciprocity.  The discussion throughout the volume makes connections to existing secondary comments, suggesting how Darwinian scrutiny can generate unexpected insight into long familiar works.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003e“Judith Saunders’s book shows just how good evolutionary literary criticism can be. She convincingly demonstrates that an evolutionary critic can generate new insights about literary works to which many generations of scholars have already devoted critical attention. Moreover, she unites a fine literary sensibility with special gifts for writing forceful and evocative prose. Her book belongs to that very small set of interpretive critical works that give specifically literary pleasure in their own right.”\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e— Joseph Carroll, Curators' Professor of English, University of Missouri—St. Louis, editor in chief of \u003cem\u003eEvolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIntroduction\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e1.\u003cem\u003eThe Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin\u003c\/em\u003e: The Story of a Successful Social Animal\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e2 Nepotism in Hawthorne’s “My Kinsman, Major Molineux”\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e3 Biophilia in Thoreau’s\u003cem\u003eWalden\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e4 Bateman’s Principle in “Song of Myself”: Whitman Celebrates Male Ardency\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e5 Maladaptive Behavior and Auctorial Design: Huck Finn’s Pap\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e6 Hell’s Fury: Female Mate-Retention Strategies in Wharton’s “Pomegranate Seed\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eand\u003cem\u003eEthan Frome\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e7 Male Reproductive Strategies in Sherwood Anderson’s “The Untold Lie”\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e8.\u003cem\u003eThe Great Gatsby\u003c\/em\u003e: An Unusual Case of Mate-Poaching\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e9 Female Sexual Strategies in the Poetry of Edna St\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eVincent Millay\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e10 Philosophy and Fitness: Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” and \u003cem\u003eThe Sun Also Rises\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e11 Paternal Confidence in Zora Neale Hurston’s “The Gilded Six-Bits”\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e12 The Role of the Arts in Male Courtship Display: Billy Collins’s “Serenade”\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eGlossary\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBibliography\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIndex\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cul\u003e\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"Academic Studies Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51359755141463,"sku":"9781618117663","price":23.74,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781618117663.jpg?v=1754125614","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/american-classics-evolutionary-perspectives-9781618117663","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}