Review: After Darwin: Literature, Theory, and Criticism in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Devin Griffiths and Deanna Kreisel

Book Review| June 01 2024 Review: After Darwin: Literature, Theory, and Criticism in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Devin Griffiths and Deanna Kreisel Devin Griffiths and Deanna Kreisel, eds. After Darwin: Literature, Theory, and Criticism in the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023. Pp. x + 264. 29. 99. John MacNeill Miller John MacNeill Miller Allegheny College John MacNeill Miller is an Associate Professor in the English Department at Allegheny College. His previous writings on Darwin and literature have appeared in Victorian Literature and Culture and Texas Studies in Literature and Language. His work-in-progress, The Ecological Plot (under contract with the University of Virginia Press), examines how the emergence of a particular form of nineteenthcentury narrative storytelling gave rise to modern ecology, economics, and the Victorian realist novel. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Nineteenth-Century Literature (2024) 79 (1): 69–73. https: //doi. org/10. 1525/ncl. 2024. 79. 1. 69 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures Review: After Darwin: Literature, Theory, and Criticism in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Devin Griffiths and Deanna Kreisel. Nineteenth-Century Literature 1 June 2024; 79 (1): 69–73. doi: https: //doi. org/10. 1525/ncl. 2024. 79. 1. 69 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentNineteenth-Century Literature Search Darwin's theories of natural and sexual selection established that survival is a matter of adaptation. To pass on its way of life, a population must show a certain degree of variation among its own members, an internal richness that makes it flexible enough to take advantage of new opportunities and to meet emerging challenges. It may be that literary survival works in much the same way: the ongoing significance of an author's work depends on its internal complexity, a heterogeneity that makes it capable of responding to new times, new places, and new sociopolitical circumstances. The essays collected by Devin Griffiths and Deanna Kreisel in After Darwin: Literature, Theory, and Criticism in the Twenty-First Century highlight precisely this richness in the thought of Darwin himself, showing how his writings adapt surprisingly well to our present moment. Taken together, the contributions to this volume make a powerful case for Darwin's capacity. . . You do not currently have access to this content.