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Article ID: CBB922911461

Leaning from the Human: Virginia Woolf, Olaf Stapledon, and the Challenge of Behaviorism (2020)

Configurations: A Journal of Literature, Science, and Technology
Volume: 28
Issue: 4
Pages: 433-457
Publication date: 2020
Language: English

URI: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/770538

DOI: 10.1353/con.2020.0030

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Science and literature Spirituality Sexuality Anthropomorphism Behaviorism Materialism Consciousness Animal psychology 20th century, early Watson, John Broadus Stapledon, Olaf Woolf, Virginia

This essay argues that Virginia Woolf's Flush (1933) and Olaf Stapledon's Sirius (1944)—novels that focus on the representation of canine consciousness—can be read as a riposte to the reductive materialism of John B. Watson's behaviorism. Following in the wake of Watson's ridicule of anthropomorphism and the "stream of consciousness" (indeed, any consciousness at all), Woolf and Stapledon embrace these techniques as they work to affirm the sexuality, spirituality, and rich mental experience of nonhuman animals. Behaviorism is revealed as a productive antagonist that played a vital role in the development of early twentieth-century literature and literary criticism.

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