My research centers on mid-19th to mid-20th century writers in the USA. My special interests within this period are in American sea fiction and the American response to Darwinian evolution. These interests are reflected in three books, Sea-Brothers: The Tradition of American Sea Fiction from Moby-Dick to the Present (U. of Penn, 1988), The Descent of Love: Darwin and the Theory of Sexual Selection in American Fiction, 1871 - 1926 (U. of Penn, 1996), and Evolution and “the Sex Problem”: American Narratives during the Eclipse of Darwinism (Kent State, 2004). All three of these books emphasize the ways in which Darwinian theory has influenced American writing, and, together, they offer a reinterpretation of this period in American literary history. The second of these volumes is the first book on Darwin and American literature, in general, and argues that American literary realism emerged largely as an affirmative response to Darwin’s view of life, especially his theory of sexual selection. It explains how the courtship novels of W. D. Howells, Henry James, Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton and many others up through Hemingway (in The Sun Also Rises) explore and sometimes contend with the theory of sexual selection. In a chapter on Charles W. Chesnutt it also explains how Darwin’s theory of sexual selection and his related theory of the evolution of race were profoundly important to African American writers. Evolution and “the Sex Problem” extends the previous study with an examination of the American Naturalists (Crane, Norris, London, and Dreiser) and many other writers up through 1950. It explains how a number of writers during this period (in general, “the eclipse of Darwinism”) resisted Darwinian theory by embracing anti-Darwinian theories of evolution such as those proposed by Joseph LeConte, P. Kropotkin, or Henri Bergson). It also continues to develop the theme that Darwin’s theory of mental evolution was highly influential among novelists. Howells, James, Stephen Crane, and many others produced narratives that drew on evolutionary psychology, as Darwin and William James presented it, and that gave rise to the modern psychological novel. Moreover, in accord with recent studies of Freud’s debt to Darwin, it explains how early 20th-century writers such as Jack London, Sherwood Anderson and Dreiser explored Freud’s theory of Sex and mind as an extension of Darwin’s theory of sexual selection. Other chapters show how powerfully Darwin’s theories of sex and race figured in the Harlem Renaissance and how his theory of evolution gave rise to the study of ecology by American novelists such as London and Steinbeck.
Although I am retired and no longer teach or serve on graduate committees, I am happy to discuss literature with people who might also be interested the literary issues I have described above.
My research centers on mid-19th to mid-20th century writers in the USA. My special interests within this period are in American sea fiction and the American response to Darwinian evolution. These interests are reflected in three books, Sea-Brothers: The Tradition of American Sea Fiction from Moby-Dick to the Present (U. of Penn, 1988), The Descent of Love: Darwin and the Theory of Sexual Selection in American Fiction, 1871 - 1926 (U. of Penn, 1996), and Evolution and “the Sex Problem”: American Narratives during the Eclipse of Darwinism (Kent State, 2004). All three of these books emphasize the ways in which Darwinian theory has influenced American writing, and, together, they offer a reinterpretation of this period in American literary history. The second of these volumes is the first book on Darwin and American literature, in general, and argues that American literary realism emerged largely as an affirmative response to Darwin’s view of life, especially his theory of sexual selection. It explains how the courtship novels of W. D. Howells, Henry James, Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton and many others up through Hemingway (in The Sun Also Rises) explore and sometimes contend with the theory of sexual selection. In a chapter on Charles W. Chesnutt it also explains how Darwin’s theory of sexual selection and his related theory of the evolution of race were profoundly important to African American writers. Evolution and “the Sex Problem” extends the previous study with an examination of the American Naturalists (Crane, Norris, London, and Dreiser) and many other writers up through 1950. It explains how a number of writers during this period (in general, “the eclipse of Darwinism”) resisted Darwinian theory by embracing anti-Darwinian theories of evolution such as those proposed by Joseph LeConte, P. Kropotkin, or Henri Bergson). It also continues to develop the theme that Darwin’s theory of mental evolution was highly influential among novelists. Howells, James, Stephen Crane, and many others produced narratives that drew on evolutionary psychology, as Darwin and William James presented it, and that gave rise to the modern psychological novel. Moreover, in accord with recent studies of Freud’s debt to Darwin, it explains how early 20th-century writers such as Jack London, Sherwood Anderson and Dreiser explored Freud’s theory of Sex and mind as an extension of Darwin’s theory of sexual selection. Other chapters show how powerfully Darwin’s theories of sex and race figured in the Harlem Renaissance and how his theory of evolution gave rise to the study of ecology by American novelists such as London and Steinbeck.