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Commentary
From=20 Evolution Comes Literature
Joseph=20 Carroll 02.05.09, 6:00 PM ET=20

Literature depends on literacy, a very recent acquisition in human=20 evolutionary history--so recent that it cannot plausibly be considered = an=20 adaptation. But people in all non-literate cultures use language, tell = stories=20 and play with words in creative and evocative ways. Written language is = just a=20 cultural technology that extends those universal human aptitudes.

Literature and its oral antecedents are thus part of the basic = profile of=20 "human nature." Over the past 15 years or so, literary scholars in a = small but=20 now rapidly growing group have argued that producing an adequate theory = of=20 literature requires an evolutionary conception of human nature. By = assimilating=20 evolutionary social science, these "literary Darwinists" aim to form a = new=20 paradigm for the study of literature.

Not surprisingly, that grand ambition has often met with a skeptical=20 response: "There have been previous efforts to establish a = scientifically based=20 criticism--Marxism, psychoanalysis, structuralism. All these efforts = have=20 failed. Why would your effort be any different?"

Not a bad question, but we have a good answer. This effort is = different=20 because the historical moment is ripe. We now have, for the first time, = an=20 empirically grounded psychology that is sufficiently robust to account = for the=20 products of the human imagination.

Sciences do not typically spring full-blown from the mind of a single = originator. Often, some creative thinker will assimilate the efforts of=20 predecessors, synthesize them, correct them and add some crucial = conceptual=20 component that makes all the pieces fit in a functional way. When that = happens,=20 what philosophers of science call a paradigm forms.

The current effort to integrate literary study with the evolutionary = social=20 sciences can be located within a nested series of three previous = paradigm=20 formations, each of which served as a necessary precondition for the one = that=20 followed: Charles Lyell's paradigm in geology in the early 19th century; = Charles=20 Darwin's in evolutionary biology later in the century; and the = still-emerging=20 paradigm in evolutionary social science.

In the decades immediately preceding Lyell's publication of = Principles of=20 Geology (1830-33), geologists had become so disgusted with grand = and=20 fanciful speculation that they had renounced general theories and = devoted=20 themselves instead to producing an accurate map of geological strata. =

Lyell assimilated these efforts and introduced "uniformitarianism," = the idea=20 that geological features result from the accumulated effects, often = minute, of=20 the geological forces visibly at work all around us.

This idea fundamentally shaped Darwin's vision of the history of the = earth=20 and informed his theory of natural selection. Darwin's speculations = about human=20 nature in The Descent of Man were prescient, but the times were = not yet=20 ripe for their implications. Evolutionary social science--a melding of = parts of=20 biology, psychology and anthropology--did not become a cumulative = research=20 program until the last quarter of the 20th century.

Until the past few years, three theoretical obstacles hampered = efforts to=20 form a satisfactory paradigm in this arena. For one, early = sociobiologists=20 insisted that "selection" takes place only at the level of the gene and = the=20 individual organism. But David Sloan Wilson has spear-headed the now = largely=20 successful effort to resuscitate the idea of "group selection" and use = it as the=20 basis for a more adequate understanding of human sociality.

In the 1990s, evolutionary psychologists distinguished themselves = from=20 sociobiologists by emphasizing "proximate mechanisms"--like parts of the = brain,=20 hormones and pheromones--that mediate reproductive success. But in = constructing=20 their model of "the adapted mind," these researchers left out the idea = that=20 general intelligence is flexible; that humans can, to a certain extent,=20 consciously direct their actions. Books such as Kim Sterelny's = Thought in a=20 Hostile World (2003) and David Geary's The Origin of Mind = (2005)=20 demonstrate how that oversight can be corrected.

The third major deficiency was an inadequate appreciation of the = co-evolution=20 of genes and culture--the idea that culture operates in reciprocally = causal ways=20 with the biologically mediated features of human nature. That obstacle = too is=20 now giving way. Theorists such as Ellen Dissanayake, E. O. Wilson, Brian = Boyd,=20 John Tooby and Leda Cosmides, Denis Dutton and I have made increasingly=20 effective arguments that culture--literature and the other arts--are=20 functionally significant features of human evolution.

Have these gradual shifts finally produced a conceptual framework = with true=20 explanatory power? I think they have. The relationship between evolution = and=20 literature provides a crucial test. Research in the next few years will=20 determine whether we can generate a cumulative body of explanatory = principles=20 rooted in Darwinian theory, that are in themselves simple and general = but=20 nonetheless encompass the particularities and complexities of literature = and the=20 other arts.

Joseph Carroll is Curators' Professor of English at the = University of=20 Missouri, St. Louis. His book Evolution and Literary Theory = (1995) is=20 often regarded as a founding text in "Literary Darwinism," the field = given its=20 name by the title of his essay collection Literary Darwinism: = Evolution,=20 Human Nature and Literature (2004). His scholarly work includes an = edition=20 of Darwin's On the Origin of Species (2003). Links to these = books and=20 to a number of more recent essays can be found on his Web site: http://www.umsl.edu/~carroll= jc/.=20




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