Denis Dutton looks at Literary Darwinism and why humans are obsessed with story-telling in The Pleasures of Fiction.
Joseph Carroll, in his new Literary Darwinism: Evolution, Human Nature, and Literature, explores a species that:
is highly social and mildly polygynous, that displays concealed ovulation, continuous female receptivity, and postmenopausal life expectancy corresponding to a uniquely extended period of childhood development, that has extraordinary aptitudes for technology, that has developed language and the capacity for peering into the minds of its conspecifics, and that displays a unique disposition for fabricating and consuming aesthetic and imaginative artifacts.
According to Carroll, human behavior fits into seven “behavioral systems”:
- Survival: avoid predators, obtain food, seek shelter, defeat enemies.
- Technology: shape cutters and pounders, use levers, attach objects, use fire.
- Mating: Assess and attract sexual partners, overcome competitors, avoid incest.
- Parenting: nurse, protect, provide, nurture, teach.
- Kin: distinguish kin, favor kin, maintain a kin network.
- Social: build coalitions, achieve status, monitor reciprocity.
- Cognition: tell stories, paint pictures, form beliefs, acquire knowledge.
Carroll makes the case that ?Authors are people talking to people about people,? and uses a passage from Pride and Prejudice to illustrate:
For example, he cites the episode in which Mr. Collins introduces himself to the Bennett household in a letter that is read by the family. This letter is, as Carroll nicely describes it, ?an absolute marvel of fatuity and of pompous self-importance,? and much is revealed in how mother, father, and the Bennett sisters react to it. The excessively sweet-tempered older sister, Jane, is puzzled by it, though she credits Mr. Collins with good intentions. The dull middle sister, Mary, says she rather likes Mr. Collins?s style. The mother, in her typical manner, only reacts to it opportunistically, in terms of a potential advantage in the situation. It is up to Elizabeth and her father to see clearly what a clownish performance the letter represents: their understanding marks an affinity of temperament and a quality perceptiveness the others lack. But what Carroll?s analysis makes clear is that there are two more people ? not fictional characters, but actual human beings ? who are in on the agreement between Mr. Bennett and his second daughter. These two further individuals are also members of their ?circle of wit and judgment.? First, there is Jane Austen, the author of Pride and Prejudice. And second, there is you, the reader of Pride and Prejudice.