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In the evaluation of the student's performance, special emphasis is placed on the extent to which the student:
Successful effort in the course will enable a student to write an essay that displays a good grasp of basic evolutionary theory and an understanding of how that theory applies to human behavior, feeling, and thought. The essay should integrate high-level causal principles of evolutionary biology, concepts of human nature deriving from the evolutionary human sciences, and a sophisticated understanding of how meaning and effect are produced in specific works of literature and/or film. The kind of thinking that informs the essay should not be limited to one specific instance of literature or film but should be generalizable as principles broadly applicable across the humanities.
The aim of this course is to acquaint students with the history and theory of evolutionary thinking in the humanities, with a particular emphasis on research in literature and film.
Over the past forty years, the evolutionary perspective has gradually developed into an explanatory framework that encompasses all things human: anatomy, physiology, behavior, and the products of the human mind. The evolutionary human sciences are now entering a mature phase. They have developed a sophisticated understanding of basic human motives and the logic of the human life cycle. The one most important weakness in much evolutionary psychology, until recently, has been an inadequate understanding of "culture," and especially of "imaginative culture": religion, ideology, myth, the arts, and intellectual life. That weakness is now being corrected by evolutionary thinking emerging from the humanities. "Literary Darwinism" is an established school and has steadily grown in importance and visibility.
Main issues
We'll be reading about 700 pages in English over the course of three weeks, so students should have a strong command of the English language and be committed to conscientious work during the course. No previous knowledge of evolutionary theory is required. Anyone with a good general education should be equipped to perform well in the course. No specific expertise in English or American literature is required. Students will be expected to have some interest in literature or film from one or more languages and to bring their special interests to bear on discussion in class. The course will culminate in writing a substantial essay, so students should already have a good command of the principles of essayistic composition: the formulation and orderly development of a theoretical and/or critical argument.
Professor Joseph Carroll (from University of Missouri-St.Louis) and Mathias Clasen
The course will be conducted as a seminar. The instructor will lecture part of the time, but more class time will be spent in discussion than in lecture. Students will be assigned days on which to identify discussion topics and lead discussion. The course will have a dedicated website. Students will be assigned responsibility for posting critical commentaries on the materials we read and watch; and other students will be assigned times for responding to the posted commentaries. This method is designed to stimulate active, constructive response to the materials all along the way. The critical commentaries will also be useful for students as preparation for writing the essay at the end of the course. Short in-class writing exercises along the way-a paragraph or so at a time-will be designed to help formulate substantive propositions about the material under discussion.
English
Brian Boyd, Joseph Carroll, and Jonathan Gottschall, eds. Evolution, Literature, and Film: A Reader . New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. isbn 978 0 231 15019 4.
William Shakespeare. Hamlet . Edited by Cyrus Hoy. 2 nd edition. New York: Norton, 1992. isbn 0 393 95663 6
Art Spiegelman. Breakdowns: Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@§< . New York: Pantheon Books, 2008. isbn 978 0 375 42395 6
The instructor will provide videos of Citizen Kane and Hamlet . The instructor will also post a few poems, plays, and stories on the course website.
Background Materials
Students who wish to familiarize themselves more with this subject matter are encouraged to look at the article "Darwinian Literary Studies" on Wikipedia. The article contains an overview and a list of about 30 relevant books, including several collections of essays: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwinian_literary_studies .
Another important source of information and stimulus can be found in the first two volumes of a new annual journal, The Evolutionary Review: Art, Science, Culture (2010 and 2011), edited by Alice Andrews and Joseph Carroll: http://www.evolutionaryreview.com/ .
Prospective students might also wish to look at a special evolutionary issue of an online journal, Politics and Culture (2010): http://www.politicsandculture.org/2010/04/28/contents-2/ .
The instructor's own website also contains a good deal of information, including essays, videos, slide shows, and links to other relevant sites: http://www.umsl.edu/~carrolljc/ .
Maya Lessov's website has filmed interviews with several scholars who have taken a prominent role in discussions on integrating evolutionary theory and the humanities: http://www.mxqhome.com/ .
Grading will be based solely on the essay at the end of the course. The essay can be primarily theoretical or primarily interpretive, but theoretical essays must use illustrative examples, and interpretive essays must locate interpretation within an explicit theoretical framework. The essay will be 14-16 standard pages (one standard page being 2,400 characters, including spaces), in English, and it will be graded on the Danish seven-point scale: http://eng.uvm.dk/Uddannelse/General/Marking%20Scale.aspx
Students should follow the English department style guide: http://engelsk.au.dk/en/studies/guides/styleguide
Students will choose their own topics in consultation with the instructor, and we shall devote one final class period to workshopping essay topics-that is, discussing the essay topics and getting feedback from other students and from the instructor.
