Literature, subjectivity and ‘human nature’: Evolution in literary studies

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In the light of a recent surge of interest in biological approaches to literature, the essay discusses a Darwinian approach and its implications for literary criticism. To borrow from Rose’s description of biology, Darwinian literary critics make claims about ‘who we are, about the forces that shape the deepest aspects of our personalities’. It is therefore not just literature that is at stake in an evolutionary approach, but also the subject’s place in relation to the natural world and society. A dialogue between literary studies and the sciences is necessary and the dissatisfaction with a post-modern jargon and the (post-)structuralist neglect of the body is understandable. Yet reliance on a human nature that constitutes the basis of a causal chain tying biology to literature is problematic. First, this essay questions ‘literary Darwinism’ as a method. Second, it aims at reassessing the constitutive force of the imagination and language. This question is of great actuality as post-structuralist conceptions of subjectivity are increasingly criticized while evolutionary explanations are gaining ground. The essay uses modernist writing as catalyst for thinking about these issues. As an intellectual moment, modernism prepared the ground for post-structuralist theory without anticipating its narrow focus on the signifier.