Joseph Carroll (born 1949) is a scholar in the field of
literature and evolution. He received his PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Berkeley and is now Curators’ Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the
University of Missouri–St. Louis.
Publications and research
After monographs on
Matthew Arnold (1982) and
Wallace Stevens (1987), Carroll's publications have centered on situating literary study within the evolutionary human sciences. His ''Evolution and Literary Theory'' (1995) was the first book in literary theory that assimilated ideas from
evolutionary psychology
Evolutionary psychology is a theoretical approach in psychology that examines cognition and behavior from a modern evolutionary perspective. It seeks to identify human psychological adaptations with regards to the ancestral problems they evolv ...
,
evolutionary anthropology,
sociobiology,
human ethology, and
evolutionary epistemology
Evolutionary epistemology refers to three distinct topics: (1) the biological evolution of cognitive mechanisms in animals and humans, (2) a theory that knowledge itself evolves by natural selection, and (3) the study of the historical discovery ...
. He argued that evolutionary literary theory offered a viable alternative both to
post-structuralism
Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Though post-structuralists all present different critiques ...
and to traditional humanism.
In the essays collected in ''Literary Darwinism'' (2004), Carroll worked toward building a comprehensive model of
human nature
Human nature is a concept that denotes the fundamental dispositions and characteristics—including ways of thinking, feeling, and acting—that humans are said to have naturally. The term is often used to denote the essence of humankind, or w ...
, gave examples of evolutionary literary criticism, and criticized
post-structuralism
Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Though post-structuralists all present different critiques ...
, traditional humanism,
ecocriticism,
cognitive poetics, and a narrow form of
evolutionary psychology
Evolutionary psychology is a theoretical approach in psychology that examines cognition and behavior from a modern evolutionary perspective. It seeks to identify human psychological adaptations with regards to the ancestral problems they evolv ...
.
In the essays collected in ''Reading Human Nature'' (2011), Carroll examined the adaptive function of literature and the other arts, offered Darwinian interpretations of ''
The Picture of Dorian Gray,'' ''
Wuthering Heights'', and ''
Hamlet'', gave examples of quantitative literary analysis, and reflected on the course of intellectual history from
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...
to the present.
In the research described in ''Graphing Jane Austen'' (2012), Carroll and colleagues conducted an Internet survey of reader responses to characters in British novels of the nineteenth century. The survey used categories from a model of human nature that included basic motives, emotions, personality characteristics, and criteria for selecting mates. The focus of the study was "agonistic structure," that is, the organization of characters into
protagonist
A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a st ...
s,
antagonists, and minor characters. A later (2017) exercise in quantitative analysis examined attitudes toward evolution among scholars in many different academic disciplines.
Carroll’s publications since ''Reading Human Nature'' (2011) include essays that are mainly theoretical, essays that are mainly exercises in interpretive literary criticism, and essays that combine theoretical exposition with interpretive criticism.
Carroll has handbook chapters in the ''Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology'', the ''Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology'', ''A Companion to Literary Theory'', and ''Literature and Other Knowledge.'' He also has chapters in edited volumes on specific topics in the evolutionary human sciences:
violence,
sociality,
death, and
emotion. He produced an annotated edition of Darwin's ''
On the Origin of Species
''On the Origin of Species'' (or, more completely, ''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life''),The book's full original title was ''On the Origin of Species by Me ...
'' and has coedited four volumes of essays by divers hands.
[Carroll, Joseph, John Johnson, Emelie Jonsson, Rex Jung, and Valerie van Mulukom, editors. 2022. ''Imaginative Culture and Human Nature: Evolutionary Perspectives on the Arts, Religion, and Ideology''. Frontiers in Psychology. eBook.] He is editor-in-chief of the journal ''Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture''.
Major works
* ''The Cultural Theory of Matthew Arnold'' (1982).
* ''Wallace Stevens’ Supreme Fiction: A New Romanticism'' (1987).
* ''Evolution and Literary Theory'' (1995).
* ''On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection,'' by
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...
, edited by Joseph Carroll (2003).
* ''Literary Darwinism: Evolution, Human Nature, and Literature'' (2004).
* ''Evolution, Literature and Film: A Reader'' (2010), edited by Joseph Carroll,
Brian Boyd, and
Jonathan Gottschall
Jonathan Gottschall (born September 20, 1972) is an American literary scholar specializing in literature and evolution. He holds the title of Research Fellow in the English department of Washington & Jefferson College in Pennsylvania. He is the ...
.
* ''Reading Human Nature: Literary Darwinism in Theory and Practice'' (2011).
* ''Graphing Jane Austen: The Evolutionary Basis of Literary Meaning'' (2012), by Joseph Carroll,
Jonathan Gottschall
Jonathan Gottschall (born September 20, 1972) is an American literary scholar specializing in literature and evolution. He holds the title of Research Fellow in the English department of Washington & Jefferson College in Pennsylvania. He is the ...
, John A. Johnson, and Daniel J. Kruger.
* ''Darwin's Bridge: Uniting the Humanities and Sciences'' (2016), edited by Joseph Carroll,
Dan P. McAdams
Dan P. McAdams (born February 7, 1954) is personality psychologist and the Henry Wade Rogers Professor in the Department of Psychology at Northwestern University.
He was raised in Gary, Indiana, where he attended nearby Valparaiso University. In ...
, and
Edward O. Wilson
Edward Osborne Wilson (June 10, 1929 – December 26, 2021) was an American biologist, naturalist, entomologist and writer. According to David Attenborough, Wilson was the world's leading expert in his specialty of myrmecology, the study of a ...
.
* ''Evolutionary Perspectives on Imaginative Culture'' (2020), edited by Joseph Carroll,
Mathias Clasen, and Emelie Jonsson.
* ''Imaginative Culture and Human Nature: Evolutionary Perspectives on the Arts, Religion, and Ideology'' (2022), edited by Joseph Carroll, John Johnson, Emelie Jonsson, Rex Jung, and Valerie van Mulukom.
References
External links
Joseph Carroll Academia.edu page*
Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carroll, Joseph
American literary theorists
Living people
University of Missouri–St. Louis people
1949 births