Narrating Evolution
Agency, Narrative Thinking, and the Epistemic Value of Contemporary British and American Novels
Published on 8. March 2017
Book
Paperback/Softback
346 pages
978-3-86821-697-4 (ISBN)
Description
In the last two decades, evolutionary theorists have displayed great interest in human beings as 'storytelling animals', thus calling attention to the cognitive faculty of narrative thinking and its survival values. Narratologists have contributed to ongoing research into narrative cognition, but they have also begun to investigate the stories we construct of evolution itself. The present study analyzes such 'evolutionary narratives' as notoriously difficult and conflicted forms of representation. It posits that the way in which narratives conceptualize behaviour as intentional action differs significantly from the rule-based, recursive and emergent agency exhibited by evolutionary systems. Advancing an understanding of science as embedded in culture, it argues that evolutionary narratives are never purely scientific formations but can instead be traced in a wide range of genres and texts, including narrative fiction.
'Narrating Evolution' pursues two main goals. Firstly, it seeks to conceptualize the nexus between evolution and narrative in a bidirectional manner by (a) theorizing the logic of narrative in contradistinction to evolutionary systems and (b) studying evolutionary theory narratologically. Secondly, the study analyzes select contemporary British and US-American novels as 'epistemological fiction'. Providing close readings of texts by Ian McEwan, Richard Powers, Edward O. Wilson, A.S. Byatt, Michael Crichton and Mark Haddon, it shows how novels can fulfil a range of critical functions - epistemic, meta-cognitive and ethical - in their engagement with evolutionary narratives. The paradigm of neo-Darwinism, in particular, is critically scrutinized in the course of this work, which combines epistemological interest in the 'narratibility' of evolution with analyses of fiction and broader cultural discourses.
'Narrating Evolution' pursues two main goals. Firstly, it seeks to conceptualize the nexus between evolution and narrative in a bidirectional manner by (a) theorizing the logic of narrative in contradistinction to evolutionary systems and (b) studying evolutionary theory narratologically. Secondly, the study analyzes select contemporary British and US-American novels as 'epistemological fiction'. Providing close readings of texts by Ian McEwan, Richard Powers, Edward O. Wilson, A.S. Byatt, Michael Crichton and Mark Haddon, it shows how novels can fulfil a range of critical functions - epistemic, meta-cognitive and ethical - in their engagement with evolutionary narratives. The paradigm of neo-Darwinism, in particular, is critically scrutinized in the course of this work, which combines epistemological interest in the 'narratibility' of evolution with analyses of fiction and broader cultural discourses.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Trier
Germany
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Edition type
New edition
Dimensions
Height: 22.5 cm
Width: 15.5 cm
Weight
635 gr
ISBN-13
978-3-86821-697-4 (9783868216974)
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Content
Contents
I. INTRODUCTION: THE PROBLEM OF NARRATING EVOLUTION AND THE EPISTEMIC VALUE OF LITERATURE 1
1. Towards a 'Non-Consilient' Approach to the Study of Evolution and
Narrative: Methodological Considerations and Literature Overview 14
2. Aims and Outline of this Study 23
II. NARRATIVIZING EVOLUTION: AGENCY-ORIENTED AND
CULTURAL-NARRATOLOGICAL APPROACHES 29
1. The Human Use of Narrative as a Cognitive Tool: Introducing an
Agency-Based Approach to Narrative 30
2. From 'Mere Behaviour' to 'Intentional Action': Constructing Agency
through Narrativization, Emplotment and Worldmaking 47
3. The Agency that Never Was: On the Limits of Narrative in Representing
Evolution and Other 'Unnarratable' Phenomena of the Living 58
4. Studying Evolutionary Narratives: The Example of Neo-Darwinism 75
4.1 Searching for the Agents of Evolutionary Change:
The 'Unit of Selection' Debate and the Construction of the
'Gene's Point of View' in Neo-Darwinist Narratives 78
4.2 Narrativizing Evolution through Adaptive Tales: On the Use of Narrative as a
Heuristic in Neo-Darwinist Theory and the Problem of 'Just-so Stories' 91
5. On the Cultural Embeddedness of Science: Modelling the Relationship
between Evolutionary, Cultural and Literary Narratives 104
5.1 'Positivists' and 'Culturalists': Reconstructing the 'Two Cultures'
within Evolutionary Theory and Beyond 106
5.2 Theorizing the Ideological Embeddedness of Evolutionary Narratives -
a Cultural-Narratological Approach 115
5.3 Connecting Evolutionary Narratives and Literary Fiction:
The 'Darwinian-Hobbesian Inter-Discourse' in Ian McEwan's Novel Saturday (2005) 120
6. The 'Evolution/Narrative Nexus': Summary of the Main Argument 132
III. LAYING BARE THE EPISTEMIC VALUE OF CONTEMPORARY NOVELS:
INTRODUCING IAN MCEWAN'S ENDURING LOVE (1997) AND
RICHARD POWERS' GENEROSITY: AN ENHANCEMENT (2009) AS
PRIME EXAMPLES OF 'EPISTEMOLOGICAL FICTION' 135
1. Key Narratological Concepts for the Analysis of Epistemological Fiction 142
1.1 Focalization and Point of View 143
1.2 Metanarration and Metafiction 147
1.3 Narrative Time and 'Genome Time' 152
2. "Evolution has culled us all into [.] efficiency": Enduring Love's
'Modern' Darwinist Joe Rose 157
3 Fictionalizing the 'Prisoner's Dilemma': Joe's Neo-Darwinist Narrative
of the 'Rational Agent' 163
4. 'Just-so Stories' Everywhere: Metanarrational Reflections
on the Unreliability of Storytelling 172
5. "[Y]our being right is not a simple matter": Objections to Joe's
Neo-Darwinist 'Truth Discourse' 178
6. When Latour Meets Darwin: Reflections on the Relationship between Knowledge
and Survival in Powers' Novel Generosity: An Enhancement 183
7. The 'Epistemic Value' and the 'Epistemological Potential' of McEwan's and
Powers' Novels 193
IV. NARRATING EVOLUTION FROM THE 'ANTS' POINT OF VIEW':
EXPLORING THE POTENTIALS AND LIMITS OF SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATION IN
E.O. WILSON'S ANTHILL: A NOVEL (2010) AND OTHER 'STORIES OF INSECTS' 196
1. Key Concepts: Narrative Embedding and Narrative Framing 202
2. "[T]he dice fell right time and again": Providing Propositional Knowledge
about Evolution in the Mode of Telling 210
3. Opening up a Bottom-Up View on Life: The Generation of Implicit
Knowledge about Evolution through Formal Strategies 217
4. The Conflicted Agencies of the Anthill: From the Pheromone to the
Superorganism 223
5. "Analogy is a slippery tool": A Comparison of Anthill and
A.S. Byatt's Novella "Morpho Eugenia" (1992) 230
6. From 'Epistemic Value' to 'Epistemological Critique' - Comparing the Politics of
Representation in Wilson's and Byatt's Literary Narratives 243
V. REFLECTIONS ON AGENCY AND THE LIMITS OF NARRATIVE THINKING
IN MULTIMODAL NOVELS: REPRESENTING ECOSYSTEMS IN
MICHAEL CRICHTON'S JURASSIC PARK (1990) AND MARK HADDON'S
THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME (2003) 247
1. Key Concept: Multimodality 253
2. "Linearity is an artificial way of viewing the world":
Contesting the 'Narrative of Centralized Control' in Michael Crichton's Novel Jurassic Park 257
3. "Life finds a way": The Ambiguous Messages of Steven Spielberg's
Filmic Remediations (1993, 1997) of Crichton's Novel and the Agency of 'Life Itself' 272
4. "[O]beying really simple rules": Reflections on Complexity and the Limits
of Narrative Thinking in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time 280
5. "I find people confusing": Deducing Evolutionary Functions of Narrative
Thinking and Theory of Mind from the Representation of an Autistic Mind 291
6. Meta-Cognitive Potentials of Multimodality in Foregrounding the Limits
and Values of Narrative Thinking 299
VI. CONCLUSION: RECONSIDERING THE EPISTEMIC VALUE OF CONTEMPORARY
FICTION ENGAGING WITH EVOLUTIONARY THEORY 302
VII. REFERENCES 310
1. Primary Literature 310
2. Works Cited 310
I. INTRODUCTION: THE PROBLEM OF NARRATING EVOLUTION AND THE EPISTEMIC VALUE OF LITERATURE 1
1. Towards a 'Non-Consilient' Approach to the Study of Evolution and
Narrative: Methodological Considerations and Literature Overview 14
2. Aims and Outline of this Study 23
II. NARRATIVIZING EVOLUTION: AGENCY-ORIENTED AND
CULTURAL-NARRATOLOGICAL APPROACHES 29
1. The Human Use of Narrative as a Cognitive Tool: Introducing an
Agency-Based Approach to Narrative 30
2. From 'Mere Behaviour' to 'Intentional Action': Constructing Agency
through Narrativization, Emplotment and Worldmaking 47
3. The Agency that Never Was: On the Limits of Narrative in Representing
Evolution and Other 'Unnarratable' Phenomena of the Living 58
4. Studying Evolutionary Narratives: The Example of Neo-Darwinism 75
4.1 Searching for the Agents of Evolutionary Change:
The 'Unit of Selection' Debate and the Construction of the
'Gene's Point of View' in Neo-Darwinist Narratives 78
4.2 Narrativizing Evolution through Adaptive Tales: On the Use of Narrative as a
Heuristic in Neo-Darwinist Theory and the Problem of 'Just-so Stories' 91
5. On the Cultural Embeddedness of Science: Modelling the Relationship
between Evolutionary, Cultural and Literary Narratives 104
5.1 'Positivists' and 'Culturalists': Reconstructing the 'Two Cultures'
within Evolutionary Theory and Beyond 106
5.2 Theorizing the Ideological Embeddedness of Evolutionary Narratives -
a Cultural-Narratological Approach 115
5.3 Connecting Evolutionary Narratives and Literary Fiction:
The 'Darwinian-Hobbesian Inter-Discourse' in Ian McEwan's Novel Saturday (2005) 120
6. The 'Evolution/Narrative Nexus': Summary of the Main Argument 132
III. LAYING BARE THE EPISTEMIC VALUE OF CONTEMPORARY NOVELS:
INTRODUCING IAN MCEWAN'S ENDURING LOVE (1997) AND
RICHARD POWERS' GENEROSITY: AN ENHANCEMENT (2009) AS
PRIME EXAMPLES OF 'EPISTEMOLOGICAL FICTION' 135
1. Key Narratological Concepts for the Analysis of Epistemological Fiction 142
1.1 Focalization and Point of View 143
1.2 Metanarration and Metafiction 147
1.3 Narrative Time and 'Genome Time' 152
2. "Evolution has culled us all into [.] efficiency": Enduring Love's
'Modern' Darwinist Joe Rose 157
3 Fictionalizing the 'Prisoner's Dilemma': Joe's Neo-Darwinist Narrative
of the 'Rational Agent' 163
4. 'Just-so Stories' Everywhere: Metanarrational Reflections
on the Unreliability of Storytelling 172
5. "[Y]our being right is not a simple matter": Objections to Joe's
Neo-Darwinist 'Truth Discourse' 178
6. When Latour Meets Darwin: Reflections on the Relationship between Knowledge
and Survival in Powers' Novel Generosity: An Enhancement 183
7. The 'Epistemic Value' and the 'Epistemological Potential' of McEwan's and
Powers' Novels 193
IV. NARRATING EVOLUTION FROM THE 'ANTS' POINT OF VIEW':
EXPLORING THE POTENTIALS AND LIMITS OF SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATION IN
E.O. WILSON'S ANTHILL: A NOVEL (2010) AND OTHER 'STORIES OF INSECTS' 196
1. Key Concepts: Narrative Embedding and Narrative Framing 202
2. "[T]he dice fell right time and again": Providing Propositional Knowledge
about Evolution in the Mode of Telling 210
3. Opening up a Bottom-Up View on Life: The Generation of Implicit
Knowledge about Evolution through Formal Strategies 217
4. The Conflicted Agencies of the Anthill: From the Pheromone to the
Superorganism 223
5. "Analogy is a slippery tool": A Comparison of Anthill and
A.S. Byatt's Novella "Morpho Eugenia" (1992) 230
6. From 'Epistemic Value' to 'Epistemological Critique' - Comparing the Politics of
Representation in Wilson's and Byatt's Literary Narratives 243
V. REFLECTIONS ON AGENCY AND THE LIMITS OF NARRATIVE THINKING
IN MULTIMODAL NOVELS: REPRESENTING ECOSYSTEMS IN
MICHAEL CRICHTON'S JURASSIC PARK (1990) AND MARK HADDON'S
THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME (2003) 247
1. Key Concept: Multimodality 253
2. "Linearity is an artificial way of viewing the world":
Contesting the 'Narrative of Centralized Control' in Michael Crichton's Novel Jurassic Park 257
3. "Life finds a way": The Ambiguous Messages of Steven Spielberg's
Filmic Remediations (1993, 1997) of Crichton's Novel and the Agency of 'Life Itself' 272
4. "[O]beying really simple rules": Reflections on Complexity and the Limits
of Narrative Thinking in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time 280
5. "I find people confusing": Deducing Evolutionary Functions of Narrative
Thinking and Theory of Mind from the Representation of an Autistic Mind 291
6. Meta-Cognitive Potentials of Multimodality in Foregrounding the Limits
and Values of Narrative Thinking 299
VI. CONCLUSION: RECONSIDERING THE EPISTEMIC VALUE OF CONTEMPORARY
FICTION ENGAGING WITH EVOLUTIONARY THEORY 302
VII. REFERENCES 310
1. Primary Literature 310
2. Works Cited 310