March 22, 2019

Book Spotlight - Wordsworth and Evolution in Victorian Literature

 

Wordsworth and Evolution in Victorian Literature:
Entangled Influence

by Trenton B. Olsen

Genres: Academic, History, Science, 19th-Century British Literature, Poetry 
Publisher: Routledge
Length: 194 pages
Published: November 30, 2018
Purchase Links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble

Official Book Summary:
"The influences of William Wordsworth’s writing and evolutionary theory—the nineteenth century’s two defining visions of nature—conflicted in the Victorian period. For Victorians, Wordsworthian nature was a caring source of inspiration and moral guidance, signaling humanity's divine origins and potential. Darwin’s nature, by contrast, appeared as an indifferent and amoral reminder of an evolutionary past that demanded participation in a brutal struggle for existence. Victorian authors like Matthew Arnold, George Eliot, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Thomas Hardy grappled with these competing representations in their work. They turned to Wordsworth as an alternative or antidote to evolution, criticized and altered his poetry in response to Darwinism, and synthesized elements of each to propose their own modified theories. Darwin’s account of a material, evolutionary nature both threatened the Wordsworthian belief in nature’s transcendent value and made spiritual elevation seem more urgently necessary. Victorian authors used Wordsworth and Darwin to explore what form of transcendence, if any, could survive an evolutionary age, and reevaluated the purpose of literature in the process."

Author Bio:
"Trenton B. Olsen completed his PhD in English Literature at the University of Minnesota and is currently Assistant Professor of English at Brigham Young University–Idaho. His work has appeared in Victorian Literature and Culture, The George Eliot Review, and The Journal of Stevenson Studies. He received the 2017 Idaho Humanities Council Research Fellowship and the 2018 George Eliot Essay Prize."


Excerpt (from Chapter One):
"Darwinism raised fundamental questions about nature and its relation to human identity, origins, and morality. Wordsworth was inextricably associated with these issues, and his work took on new meaning and urgency in Darwin's wake. Victorians from orthodox Anglican ministers to agnostic scientists drew on Wordsworth to respond to evolutionary theory. Biologists T.H. Huxley and Ernst Haeckel used Wordsworth quotations as epigraphs to their scientific books and journals even as their religious opponents enlisted Wordsworth against evolution. John Campbell Shairp described Wordsworth's poetry as the 'surest antidote' against Darwinian theory, and a contributor to The Edinburgh Review read Wordsworth's poetry as 'a protest against belief in evolution from beneath.' For others, Wordsworth's writing was an anticipation of Darwinism rather than its antithesis.... Wordsworth's poetry and evolutionary theory were so interconnected that, for these Victorian authors [Arnold, Eliot, Stevenson, and Hardy], responding to Darwin required revisiting and rethinking Wordsworth. They tested the poet's ideas against Darwinism and vice versa in their writing both to determine which Wordsworthian principles could survive the new age and to resist those elements of evolutionary theory they were unwilling to accept" (Olsen 3-4).

Book Spotlight:
This book analyzes the influence Wordsworth's writings had on post-Darwininian Victorian authors. Over the course of five chapters, Olsen examines this dynamic, first establishing the connection in Chapter One: Wordsworth in the Age of Evolution, and then applying this framework to the works of four key Victorian writers: Matthew Arnold, George Eliot, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Thomas Hardy. Olsen concludes by showing how their texts and reflection on Wordsworth's relationship to Darwin's findings moved toward the Modernist period. If you're a student or scholar of Victorian literature, interested in history or science, or a fan of Wordsworth's poetry, definitely consider checking out this new contribution to literary scholarship.

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