Worden, Joel Daniel (Author)
My dissertation examines the works of Herman Melville, Tennessee Williams, and Kurt Vonnegut, along with two twenty-first century popular fiction writers. The Galapagos Islands connect the disparate group of authors and unite them in a common pursuit, which is the exploration of humankind's place in what can be a harsh universe. Melville wrote ``The Encantadas'' in 1854, five years before Darwin's _Origin of Species_ (1859), but his writings evince a concern with what he saw as an unwelcoming world and what the role of human beings was in that world. Upon Darwin's publication of _Origin_, humanity's existence became more problematical; writers and philosophers have grappled with its implications ever since. Because the impact of Darwinism is widespread, the Galapagos can serve as a filtering device by which to examine American responses to Darwinism. The Galapagos Islands have risen from obscurity primarily because of Darwin's 1835 visit. His admission that the archipelago prompted many questions into the nature of speciation sparked an interest in the islands that steadily grew. After a brief history of the idea of evolution in America in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 traces the rise in popularity that the islands underwent from 1850 to 2002. A sampling of the periodical literature shows the different ways that the islands have been portrayed for the last century and a half. Chapter 3 examines ``The Encantadas'' and Darwin's _Voyage of the Beagle_ (1839, revised 1847) to discern the attitude with which each author treats the islands and what each of them suggests about the nature of life. Chapter 4 discusses Tennessee William's play, _Suddenly Last Summer_ (1959), which incorporates elements of Freudian and Darwinian theory. Chapter 5 examines the use of the Galapagos by two contemporary authors, Cathleen Schine, and Gregg Andrew Hurwitz. Their novels, _The Evolution of Jane_ (1998) and _Minutes to Burn_ (2001), use the islands as a place to contemplate Darwinian themes. The final chapter, Chapter 6, discusses Kurt Vonnegut's _Galapagos_ (1985) and inspects his response to Darwin's theory of natural selection. The Galapagos Islands serve as a common ground for authors from different time periods and geographical places. Through each author's contemplation of the islands and the theories they symbolize, we gain insight into the ways Darwinism has affected America since its inception.
...MoreDescription Looks at works by Herman Melville, Tennessee Williams, and Kurt Vonnegut. Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 66/07 (2006): 2582. UMI pub. no. 3181874.
Book
McInnis, Gilbert;
(2011)
Evolutionary Mythology in the Writings of Kurt Vonnegut: Darwin, Vonnegut and the Construction of an American Culture
(/isis/citation/CBB001033149/)
Book
Halliday, Sam;
(2007)
Science and Technology in the Age of Hawthorne, Melville, Twain, and James:Thinking and Writing Electricity
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Book
Harrison, Henry Leslie;
(2007)
The Temple and the Forum: The American Museum and Cultural Authority in Hawthorne, Melville, Stowe, and Whitman
(/isis/citation/CBB001035575/)
Thesis
Callaway, David R.;
(2000)
Melville in the Age of Darwin and Paley: Science in Typee, Mardi, Moby Dick, and Clarel
(/isis/citation/CBB001562695/)
Book
Holmes, John;
(2009)
Darwin's Bards: British and American Poetry in the Age of Evolution
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Book
Ginger Strand;
(2015)
The Brothers Vonnegut: Science and Fiction in the House of Magic
(/isis/citation/CBB822557778/)
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Cuddy, Lois A.;
Roche, Claire M.;
(2003)
Evolution and Eugenics in American Literature and Culture, 1880-1940: Essays on Ideological Conflict and Complicity
(/isis/citation/CBB000500826/)
Thesis
Nichols, Rachael L.;
(2010)
The Human Animal: Tangles in Science and Literature, 1870--1920
(/isis/citation/CBB001567211/)
Thesis
Conley, Gregory Dean;
(2013)
Alien Evolutions: Darwinian Influence on the History and Transformation of the Anglo-American Science Fiction Alien, 1885--1936
(/isis/citation/CBB001567514/)
Book
Richard J. King;
(2019)
Ahab's Rolling Sea: A Natural History of "Moby-Dick"
(/isis/citation/CBB326526534/)
Thesis
Carswell, Lilian P.;
(2004)
Telling the Truth about Animals: Epistemology, Ethics, and Animal Minds inMelville, Darwin, Saunders, and London
(/isis/citation/CBB001562113/)
Article
Hoare, Philip;
(2013)
Cetology: How Science Inspired Moby-Dick
(/isis/citation/CBB001320419/)
Book
Gilmore, Paul;
(2009)
Aesthetic Materialism: Electricity and American Romanticism
(/isis/citation/CBB001020720/)
Book
Saul, Nicholas;
James, Simon J.;
(2011)
The Evolution of Literature: Legacies of Darwin in European Cultures
(/isis/citation/CBB001202029/)
Book
Wilson, Eric;
(2000)
Romantic Turbulence: Chaos, Ecology, and American Space
(/isis/citation/CBB000110482/)
Thesis
Cates, David Isaac;
(2002)
Nature Poetry after Darwin
(/isis/citation/CBB001562193/)
Chapter
Waugh, Patricia;
(2011)
Mind in Modern Fiction: Literary and Philosophical Perspectives after Darwin
(/isis/citation/CBB001202033/)
Book
Michael Ruse;
(2016)
Darwinism as Religion: What Literature Tells Us about Evolution
(/isis/citation/CBB247868178/)
Chapter
Carlo Paghetti;
(2014)
I scientific romances di H.G. Wells: variazioni sul tema dello scienziato darwiniano
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Book
Brown, William;
Fabian, Andrew C.;
(2010)
Darwin
(/isis/citation/CBB001023129/)
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