Author |
Amigoni, David |
Year |
2008 |
Publisher |
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press |
Number of pages |
254 |
ISBN |
9780511484711 |
Keywords |
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Abstract
Amazon (2013):
The concept of culture, now such an important term within both the arts and the sciences,
is a legacy of the nineteenth century. By closely analyzing writings by evolutionary
scientists such as Charles Darwin, Alfred Russell Wallace, and Herbert Spencer, alongside
those of literary figures including Wordsworth, Coleridge, Arnold, Butler, and Gosse,
David Amigoni shows how the modern concept of 'culture' developed out of the interdisciplinary
interactions between literature, philosophy, anthropology, colonialism, and, in particular,
Darwin's theories of evolution. He goes on to explore the relationship between literature
and evolutionary science by arguing that culture was seen less as a singular idea
or concept, and more as a field of debate and conflict. This fascinating book includes
much material on the history of evolutionary thought and its cultural impact, and
will be of interest to scholars of intellectual and scientific history as well as
of literature.