Darwin and Faulkner’s Novels: Evolution and Southern Fiction

253 Pages·2008·7.932 MB·English

by  Michael Wainwright (auth.)

Darwin and Faulkner’s Novels

Darwin and Faulkner’s Novels
Evolution and Southern Fiction
Michael Wainwright
darwin and faulkner’s novels
Copyright © Michael Wainwright, 2008.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2008 978-0-230-60462-9
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First published in 2008 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-37237-9 ISBN 978-0-230-61205-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230612051
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wainwright, Michael.
Darwin and Faulkner’s novels: evolution and southern fiction / Michael Wainwright.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. American fiction—Southern States—History and criticism. 2. Darwin, Charles,
1809–1882—Influence. 3. Faulkner, William, 1897–1962—Criticism and interpretation.
4. Evolution (Biology) in literature. 5. Social Darwinism in literature. 6. Literature and
science—Southern States. 7. Southern States—Intellectual life. I. Title.
PS261.W25 2008
813’.509—dc22 2007032120
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Scribe Inc.
First edition: April 2008
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In memory of two very different Englishmen
Shura Cherkassky
and
Keinosuke Enoeda

C
ONTENTS
Preface ix
1 Looking across the Atlantic 1
2 Hand in Hand with the Old Gentleman 21
3 The Complex Temple of Sexual Politics 45
4 Pangenesis and Southern Thought 77
5 From Race to Ecology 103
6 Philosophical Frontiers 131
7 The Enemy Within 159
8 Self-interest, Cooperation, and Beyond 185
Notes 211
Works Cited 223
Index 237

P
REFACE
I will here give a brief sketch of the progress of opinion on the Origin of
Species.
Charles Darwin, The Origin ofSpecies (1859 i)
This volume studies the artistic and philosophical maturation of the
author William Faulkner (1897–1962) from the perspective of an evolu-
tionary hermeneutic. The context in which he lived and the fiction that
he produced recommend this approach. For, spending the majority of his
life in Mississippi, Faulkner’s accustomed environment situated him in a
region of ecological turmoil. Population expansion and fears about inter-
racial familiarity fueled this condition as part of a countrywide struggle
between centripetal orthodoxy and centrifugal modernity. Proponents
from each side of this ideological divide drew on evolutionary ideas to
further their cause. However, as scientific arguments concerning evolu-
tion became more rigorous, personal and communal introversion had to
concede ground to an emerging global outlook. Faulkner’s intellectual
development benefited from and bore witness to this dynamic, his evolu-
tionarily inflected fiction becoming a guide to the aggrandizement of
America.
The present study employs an evolutionary hermeneutic along a num-
ber of trajectories to chart this literary maturation. One course contextu-
alizes the epistemological progress of evolutionary ideas as they would
have impinged on Faulkner; another route identifies the evolutionarily
imbued sources, both archived and newly available, used by him; the
third trajectory then tracks the evolutionary forms, figurations, and
philosophical implications latent in the Faulknerian oeuvre. In recent
years, scholars such as Gillian Beer and Joseph Carroll have begun to
address these interconnections but without worthwhile reference to
Faulkner. Only a few Faulknerians, Peter G. Beidler, Carol Colatrella,
and Gail Mortimer being the most notable, have shown that direct relays
between the writings of Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and Faulkner, on
the one hand, and Faulkner’s indirect routes to evolutionary philosophy,