Evolutionary Science and Literary Design: Teaching Huxley's Brave New World in Interdisciplinary Collaboration

Abstract The authors, faculty at a small, private liberal arts college, have collaborated many times in interdisciplinary pedagogical ventures, linking evolutionary science with literary study. One of us is an animal behaviorist in the Biology Department, the other a literary scholar in the English Department. In this co-authored essay, we offer detailed description of a team-taught course, Evolution, Behavior, and Literature, explaining course content and design. Readings and assignments lay the groundwork for a scientific understanding of human behavior, including cognitive and emotional functions; this enables us to present literature in an evolutionary context, as an artifact of the adapted mind. As illustrative example, we offer an extended discussion of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, identifying key topics in evolutionary psychology and cognition pertinent to interdisciplinary analysis of this novel.