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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 The University of Missouri–St. Louis (UMSL) is a Public university, public research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Established in 1963, it is the newest of the four universities in the University of Missouri System. Located ...
.


Publications and research

After monographs on
Matthew Arnold Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was an English poet and cultural critic. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold (academic), Tom Arnold, literary professor, and Willi ...
(1982) and
Wallace Stevens Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as an executive for an insurance compa ...
(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 regard to the ancestral problems they evolved ...
,
evolutionary anthropology Evolutionary anthropology, the interdisciplinary study of the human evolution, evolution of human physiology and human behaviour and of the relation between hominids and non-hominid primates, builds on natural science and on social science. Vari ...
,
sociobiology Sociobiology is a field of biology that aims to explain social behavior in terms of evolution. It draws from disciplines including psychology, ethology, anthropology, evolution, zoology, archaeology, and population genetics. Within the study of ...
,
human ethology Human ethology is the study of human behavior. Ethology as a discipline is generally thought of as a sub-category of biology, though psychology, psychological theories have been developed based on ethological ideas (e.g. sociobiology, evolutionary ...
, 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 philosophical movement that questions the objectivity or stability of the various interpretive structures that are posited by structuralism and considers them to be constituted by broader systems of Power (social and poli ...
and to traditional humanism. In the essays collected in ''Literary Darwinism'' (2004), Carroll worked toward building a comprehensive model of
human nature Human nature comprises the fundamental dispositions and characteristics—including ways of Thought, thinking, feeling, and agency (philosophy), acting—that humans are said to have nature (philosophy), naturally. The term is often used to denote ...
, gave examples of evolutionary literary criticism, and criticized
post-structuralism Post-structuralism is a philosophical movement that questions the objectivity or stability of the various interpretive structures that are posited by structuralism and considers them to be constituted by broader systems of Power (social and poli ...
, traditional humanism,
ecocriticism Ecocriticism is the study of literature and ecology from an interdisciplinary point of view, where literature scholars analyze texts that illustrate environmental concerns and examine the various ways literature treats the subject of nature. It wa ...
, 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 regard to the ancestral problems they evolved ...
. 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 ''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' is an 1890 philosophical fiction and Gothic fiction, Gothic horror fiction, horror novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella-length version was published in the July 1890 issue of the American period ...
,'' ''
Wuthering Heights ''Wuthering Heights'' is the only novel by the English author Emily Brontë, initially published in 1847 under her pen name "Ellis Bell". It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moors, the Earnshaws and the ...
'', and ''
Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...
'', 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 Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...
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 ...
s,
antagonist An antagonist is a character in a story who is presented as the main enemy or rival of the protagonist and is often depicted as a villain.violence Violence is characterized as the use of physical force by humans to cause harm to other living beings, or property, such as pain, injury, disablement, death, damage and destruction. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines violence a ...
,
sociality Sociality is the degree to which individuals in an animal population tend to associate in social groups (gregariousness) and form cooperative societies. Sociality is a survival response to evolutionary pressures. For example, when a mother ...
,
death Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sh ...
, and
emotion Emotions are physical and mental states brought on by neurophysiology, neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavior, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or suffering, displeasure. There is ...
. 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 M ...
'' 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 was editor-in-chief for the first 12 issues 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 Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...
, 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. * ''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, John A. Johnson, and Daniel J. Kruger. * ''Darwin's Bridge: Uniting the Humanities and Sciences'' (2016), edited by Joseph Carroll, Dan P. McAdams, and Edward O. Wilson. * ''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 1949 births University of Missouri–St. Louis faculty