Graphing Jane Austen

Carroll, Joseph C.; Johnson, John A.; Gottschall, Jonathan; Kruger, Daniel J.

doi:10.1075/ssol.2.1.01car

Cited by 6 publications

References 17 publications

(19 reference statements)

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Evolutionary Literary Study

Carroll

2015

The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology

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In the 1990s and early 2000s, much of the work done in evolutionary literary study was polemical and programmatic. Scholars attacked the cultural constructivist ideas prevailing in the academic literary establishment, rehearsed the basic logic of the adaptationist program, and made exploratory efforts to formulate principles of interpretation that could be linked to specifically evolutionary ideas. Over the past decade, polemics and programmatic rehearsals have diminished while literary theory and interpretive literary criticism have matured. Many evolutionists in the humanities argue that basic human motives are channeled into specific cultural norms, that specific cultural norms are articulated in imaginative form through myths, legends, rituals, images, songs, and stories, and that humans universally regulate their behavior in accordance with beliefs and values that are made vividly present to them in the arts. Evolutionary literary scholars aim at analyzing the thematic, tonal, and formal features of literary works; locating the works in a cultural context; explaining the cultural context as a particular organization of the elements of human nature within a specific set of environmental conditions; registering the responses of readers; describing the sociocultural, political, and psychological functions the works fulfill; locating those functions in relation to the evolved needs of human nature; and linking workscomparatively with other artistic works, using a taxonomy of themes, formal elements, affective elements, and functions derived from a comprehensive model of human nature.

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Evolutionary Literary Study

Carroll

2015

The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology

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Biocultural theory: The current state of knowledge.

Carroll¹,

Clasen²,

Jonsson³

et al. 2017

Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences

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Biocultural theory is an integrative research program designed to investigate the causal interactions between biological adaptations and cultural constructions. From the biocultural perspective, cultural processes are rooted in the biological necessities of the human life cycle: specifically human forms of birth, growth, survival, mating, parenting, and sociality. Conversely, from the biocultural perspective, human biological processes are constrained, organized, and developed by culture, which includes technology, culturally specific socioeconomic and political structures, religious and ideological beliefs, and artistic practices such as music, dance, painting, and storytelling. Establishing biocultural theory as a program that self-consciously encompasses the different particular forms of human evolutionary research could help scholars and scientists envision their own specialized areas of research as contributions to a coherent, collective research program. This article argues that a mature biocultural paradigm needs to be informed by at least 7 major research clusters: (a) gene-culture coevolution; (b) human life history theory; (c) evolutionary social psychology; (d) anthropological research on contemporary hunter-gatherers; (e) biocultural socioeconomic and political history; (f) evolutionary aesthetics; and (g) biocultural research in the humanities (religions, ideologies, the history of ideas, and the arts). This article explains the way these research clusters are integrated in biocultural theory, evaluates the level of development in each cluster, and locates current biocultural theory within the historical trajectory of the social sciences and the humanities.

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The nuanced psychology of The Handmaid’s Tale: Commentary on power, feminism, and the patriarchy from four feminist evolutionary psychologists.

Calvi

Rankin

Clauss

et al. 2020

Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences

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Dystopian novels such as The Handmaid's Tale (Atwood, 1985) illuminate real-world human sociopolitical dynamics that underscore the processes of sexual and reproductive control at both the systemic and individual levels. Here we utilize this novel as a unique and abundant case study to generate a broader theoretical discussion of feminism and evolutionary psychology. Integrating the function of fiction (Carroll, 2018), we highlight examples in the novel which illustrate the overt and covert attempts by both sexes to control female sexuality and reproductive potential. Examples from the novel are utilized to discuss myriad behaviors underlying the divergent reproductive interest of men and women, and female-female competition that occurs under patriarchal control. Implicit and explicit tactics women use to resist control over their sexuality are outlined, and we argue that the sensitivity to the structure of a society such as (the fictionalized) Republic of Gilead is only possible via evolved cognitive mechanisms that allow humans to detect attempts to exercise power and control over reproductive choices. We present evidence that evolved emotional and motivational systems incentivize feminists today to prevent such a society, and that feminism itself is only possible as a social, political, and intellectual movement based on those evolved cognitive mechanisms. Public Significance StatementAs evolutionary psychological scientists who identify as feminists in our everyday lives, we analyze a hotly debated feminist novel, The Handmaid's Tale, in the context of evolutionary theory using recent findings from the scientific literature to connect to themes in the novel. We point to patterns of the society's structure and members' behaviors in the dystopian novel and draw upon many areas of research to offer a perspective on the overlap between the goals of evolutionary science and feminism.

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Graphing Jane Austen

Cited by 6 publications

References 17 publications

Evolutionary Literary Study

Evolutionary Literary Study

Biocultural theory: The current state of knowledge.

The nuanced psychology of The Handmaid’s Tale: Commentary on power, feminism, and the patriarchy from four feminist evolutionary psychologists.

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