Genetics and the Literary Imagination by Clare Hanson (English) Paperback Book

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Studying works by Doris Lessing, Ian McEwan, A.S. Byatt, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Jackie Kay, this book explores the impact on literature of the gene-centric model of human nature that entered mainstream culture in the wake of the discovery of the structure of DNA.

FORMATPaperback LANGUAGEEnglish CONDITIONBrand New Publisher Description

Oxford Textual Perspectives is a series of informative and provocative studies focused upon literary texts (conceived of in the broadest sense of that term) and the technologies, cultures, and communities that produce, inform, and receive them. It provides fresh interpretations of fundamental works and of the vital and challenging issues emerging in English literary studies. By engaging with the materiality of the literary text, its production, and receptionhistory, and frequently testing and exploring the boundaries of the notion of text itself, the volumes in the series question familiar frameworks and provide innovative interpretations of both canonical andless well-known works. This is the first book to explore the dramatic impact of genetics on literary fiction over the past four decades. After James Watson and Francis Crick's discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953 and the subsequent cracking of the genetic code, a gene-centric discourse developed which had a major impact not only on biological science but on wider culture. As figures like E. O. Wilson and Richard Dawkins popularised the neo-Darwinian view thatbehaviour was driven by genetic self-interest, novelists were both compelled and unnerved by such a vision of the origins and ends of life. This book maps the ways in which Doris Lessing, A.S. Byatt, IanMcEwan, and Kazuo Ishiguro wrestled with the reductionist neo-Darwinian account of human nature and with the challenge it posed to humanist beliefs about identity, agency, and morality. It argues that these novelists were alienated to varying degrees by neo-Darwinian arguments but that the recent shift to postgenomic science has enabled a greater rapprochement between biological and (post)humanist concepts of human nature. The postgenomic view of organisms as agentic and interactive is echoedin the life-writing of Margaret Drabble and Jackie Kay, which also explores the ethical implications of this holistic biological perspective. As advances in postgenomics, especially epigenetics, provokeincreasing public interest and concern, this book offers a timely analysis of debates that have fundamentally altered our understanding of what it means to be human.

Author Biography

Clare Hanson is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Southampton. She is author and editor of 11 books including A Cultural History of Pregnancy: Pregnancy, Medicine and Culture 1750-2000 (Palgrave, 2004), Eugenics, Literature and Culture in Post-war Britain (Routledge, 2012), Katherine Mansfield and Psychology (with Gerri Kimber and Todd Martin, Edinburgh UP, 2016), and The History of British Women's Writing Vol 9,1945-1975 (with Susan Watkins, Palgrave, 2017).

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Secret of Life1: Doris Lessing's Evolutionary Epic2: A.S. Byatt's Biological Reason3: Ian McEwan: the Literary Animal4: Clone Lives: Eva Hoffman and Kazuo Ishiguro5: Postgenomic Histories: Margaret Drabble and Jackie Kay

Review

Her analysis is insightful and her prose... is extremely readable. Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. * E. R. Baer, Gustavus Adolphus College, CHOICE *

Long Description

Oxford Textual Perspectives is a series of informative and provocative studies focused upon literary texts (conceived of in the broadest sense of that term) and the technologies, cultures, and communities that produce, inform, and receive them. It provides fresh interpretations of fundamental works and of the vital and challenging issues emerging in English literary studies. By engaging with the materiality of the literary text, its production, and reception history,and frequently testing and exploring the boundaries of the notion of text itself, the volumes in the series question familiar frameworks and provide innovative interpretations of both canonical and less well-known works.This is the first book to explore the dramatic impact of genetics on literary fiction over the past four decades. After James Watson and Francis Crick's discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953 and the subsequent cracking of the genetic code, a gene-centric discourse developed which had a major impact not only on biological science but on wider culture. As figures like E. O. Wilson and Richard Dawkins popularised the neo-Darwinian view that behaviour was driven by genetic self-interest,novelists were both compelled and unnerved by such a vision of the origins and ends of life. This book maps the ways in which Doris Lessing, A.S. Byatt, Ian McEwan, and Kazuo Ishiguro wrestled with the reductionist neo-Darwinian account of human nature and with the challenge it posed to humanist beliefsabout identity, agency, and morality. It argues that these novelists were alienated to varying degrees by neo-Darwinian arguments but that the recent shift to postgenomic science has enabled a greater rapprochement between biological and (post)humanist concepts of human nature. The postgenomic view of organisms as agentic and interactive is echoed in the life-writing of Margaret Drabble and Jackie Kay, which also explores the ethical implications of this holistic biological perspective. Asadvances in postgenomics, especially epigenetics, provoke increasing public interest and concern, this book offers a timely analysis of debates that have fundamentally altered our understanding of what it means to be human.

Review Quote

"Her analysis is insightful and her prose... is extremely readable. Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty." -- E. R. Baer, Gustavus Adolphus College, CHOICE

Feature

Explores the profound impact of genetics on literary fiction over the past 40 yearsStrongly interdisciplinary, combining expertise both in the history of biology and in contemporary fictionUses material from the archives of Kazuo Ishiguro and Ian McEwan to offer novel interpretations of key textsDraws on Catherine Malabou's innovative philosophical analysis of epigenetics and cloning

New Feature

Introduction: The Secret of Life 1. Doris Lessing's Evolutionary Epic 2. A.S. Byatt's Biological Reason 3. Ian McEwan: the Literary Animal 4. Clone Lives: Eva Hoffman and Kazuo Ishiguro 5. Postgenomic Histories: Margaret Drabble and Jackie Kay

Details ISBN0198813341 Series Oxford Textual Perspectives Language English Year 2020 ISBN-10 0198813341 ISBN-13 9780198813347 Format Paperback Author Clare Hanson Publisher Oxford University Press Imprint Oxford University Press Place of Publication Oxford Country of Publication United Kingdom Affiliation Emeritus Professor of English, University of Southampton Publication Date 2020-05-13 UK Release Date 2020-05-13 AU Release Date 2020-05-13 NZ Release Date 2020-05-13 Pages 212 Alternative 9780198813286 DEWEY 809.304 Audience Tertiary & Higher Education We've got this

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