Critical Faculties

Survivalist lit

Does Darwin have anything to say about Beowulf and Madame Bovary?

By Christopher Shea

November 6, 2005

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DARWINIAN LITERARY CRITICISM: such an evocative phrase! But what does it mean? Could it refer to the eviscerations of authors that take place regularly in the back pages of The New Republic-critics culling weak novelists from the herd? Or perhaps it's an allusion to the scramble for jobs at the annual meeting of the Modern Language Association, in which only ... (Full article: 810 words)