Evolution and "the sex problem": American narratives during the eclipse of Darwinism

Abstract

A noteworthy investigation of Darwinian element in American fiction from realist through Freudian eras. In Evolution and the Sex Problem author Bert Bender argues that Darwin's theories of sexual selection and of emotions are essential elements in American fiction from late 1800s through 1950s, particularly during Freudian era and years surrounding Scopes trial. Bender contends that novelists with different social points of view explored the Sex Problem, and what resulted was a great diversity of American narratives aligned with either Darwinian or a number of anti-Darwinian theories of evolution. Included are intriguing discussions of works by Frank Norris, Jack London, Stephen Crane, Theodore Dreiser, Gertrude Stein, Willa Cather, Sherwood Anderson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, five writers of Harlem Renaissance, John Steinbeck, and Ernest Hemingway. Among ideas explored are Darwin's theory of common descent; question of man's place in nature; possibility of evolutionary progress; issues of heredity and eugenics; Darwinian basis of Freud's theory of sexual repression; quandary of male violence and role of female choice in sexual selection; power of and problems of racial and sexual selection; power of and problems of racial and sexual difference; and ecological problems that arose directly from Darwin's theory of evolution. This volume provides a valuable treatment of an underappreciated aspect of America's major narratives of human life and love and will be appreciated by literary scholars and readers interested in Darwinism and culture.