Pagina principaleGruppiConversazioniAltroStatistiche
Cerca nel Sito
Questo sito utilizza i cookies per fornire i nostri servizi, per migliorare le prestazioni, per analisi, e (per gli utenti che accedono senza fare login) per la pubblicità. Usando LibraryThing confermi di aver letto e capito le nostre condizioni di servizio e la politica sulla privacy. Il tuo uso del sito e dei servizi è soggetto a tali politiche e condizioni.

Risultati da Google Ricerca Libri

Fai clic su di un'immagine per andare a Google Ricerca Libri.

Sto caricando le informazioni...

Madame Bovary's Ovaries: A Darwinian Look at Literature

di David P. Barash

UtentiRecensioniPopolaritàMedia votiCitazioni
273896,459 (3.38)8
What can elephant seals tell us about Homer's Iliad? How do gorillas illuminate the works of Shakespeare? What do bloodsucking bats have to do with John Steinbeck? MADAME BOVARY'S OVARIES A Darwinian Look at Literature According to evolutionary psychologist David Barash and his daughter Nanelle, the answers lie in the most important word in biology: evolution. Just like every animal from mites to monkeys, our day-to-day behavior has been shaped by millions of years of natural selection. So it should be no surprise to learn that the natural forces that drive animals in general and Homo sapiens in particular are clearly visible in the creatures of literature, from Henry Fielding's Tom Jones all the way to Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones. Seen through the lens of evolutionary biology, the witty repartee of Jane Austen's courting couples, Othello's tragic rage, the griping of Holden Caulfield, and the scandalous indiscretions of Madame Bovary herself all make a fresh and exciting kind of sense. The ways we fall in--and out--of love, stand by our friends, compete against our enemies, and squabble with our families have their roots in biological imperatives we share not only with other primates but with an amazing array of other creatures. The result is a new way to read, a novel approach to novels (and plays) that reveals how human nature underlies literature, from the great to the not-so-great. Using the cutting-edge ideas of contemporary Darwinism, the authors show how the heroes and heroines of our favorite stories have been molded as much by evolution as by the genius of their creators, revealing a gallery of characters from Agamemnon to Alexander Portnoy, who have more in common with birds, fish, and other mammals than we could ever have imagined. As engaging and informative as a good story, Madame Bovary's Ovaries is both an accessible introduction to a fascinating area of science and a provocatively sideways look at our cherished literary heritage. Most of all, it shows in a delightfully enteraining way how science and literature shed light on each other.… (altro)
Nessuno
Sto caricando le informazioni...

Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro.

Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro.

» Vedi le 8 citazioni

Bleugh. Crappy evolutionary psychology at its worst. Did not finish. ( )
  katebrarian | Jul 28, 2020 |
As one might expect from the title, this book takes a light-hearted look at the way in which biological imperatives drive the characterization and plot of many pieces of classic literature.

Briefly put, that biological imperative is to send one's genes into the future, and to do so by choosing the partner best equipped to get them there. Pretty straightforward and Darwinian, if not overly romantic.

The authors try valiantly to expand this simple concept to fill 358 pages, and as one might expect, it gets a little iffy at times. They do fine when making the notion of "biologic fitness" comprehensible, and choose interesting (if sometimes obvious) pieces of literature to demonstrate what that means to fictional characters.

But the whole thing falls apart when they get beyond traditional parenting and wander off into the biological basis for altruism in non-related subjects. and the notion of "selected kinship", in which individuals from another genetic line are offered the social/cultural amenities normally reserved for offspring or potential mates.

By the time they get to the subject of adoption and beyond that to non-sexual buddy literature ('Three Musketeers', anyone?) the whole biological imperative thing seems to be left in the dust. Same-sex relationships don't even get a passing glance.

As pop science goes, it's an entertaining read, but it will hardly revolutionize one's view of Madame Bovary -- or any of the other literary creations it attempts to shoehorn into the premise. ( )
  LyndaInOregon | Feb 25, 2019 |
An adequate and readable application of evolutionary psychology to literature. The examples are all relatively simplistic; sure, selection pressure explains why Othello is jealous, why Madame Bovary is ambitious, and why the Corleone family sticks together; the problem is the authors never caution that this is very difficult to rigorously test. I can see this as sort of a gentle introduction to evolutionary psychology for humanities majors; there are just enough examples from the natural world to demonstrate that biologists aren’t making stuff up; I fear, though problems in two directions: people on the humanities side just unable to grasp the scientific method and ranting on the temerity of scientists intruding into the sacred halls of philosophy and literature (see David Stove and Mary Midgely versus Richard Dawkins or F.R. Leavis versus C.P. Snow) or overenthusiastic adoption without awareness of the difficulty of falsifying evolutionary psychology (sort of the way people in the humanities swallowed Freudian psychiatry hook, line and sinker for years). Reads fast, adequate references; the choice of what counts as “literature” might be arguable. ( )
  setnahkt | Dec 15, 2017 |
Ack. The epilogue, in which the authors clarify that 'literature is more than biology,' should have come first. I spent the whole time reading this book (in little bits at a time, over weeks) being frustrated with 'our genes make us do it and that's what makes for classic literature.'

Well, now I know a bunch of books I don't need to get around to reading. I don't care about insights into base human nature - I want to read about people rising above instinct, making thoughtful choices, exercising the skills we have to evaluate our actions, foresee consequences, etc.

If you're a lit. nerd, you might like to see your fav. classics through this 'new' lens.

If you're a science nerd, and already know that we are, at core, survival machines for genes," you might like to see how writers have struggled through the ages to say that in a story form.

I, personally, am both, actually. So I was pretty darn bored. This would have made a better article, not a whole book." ( )
  Cheryl_in_CC_NV | Jun 6, 2016 |
Check this thing out. Sounds like total bullshit, right? But sortof interesting bullshit. My Victorian homegirl says it's worth a read.
1 vota AlCracka | Apr 2, 2013 |
nessuna recensione | aggiungi una recensione
Devi effettuare l'accesso per contribuire alle Informazioni generali.
Per maggiori spiegazioni, vedi la pagina di aiuto delle informazioni generali.
Titolo canonico
Titolo originale
Titoli alternativi
Data della prima edizione
Personaggi
Luoghi significativi
Eventi significativi
Film correlati
Epigrafe
Dedica
Incipit
Citazioni
Ultime parole
Nota di disambiguazione
Redattore editoriale
Elogi
Lingua originale
DDC/MDS Canonico
LCC canonico

Risorse esterne che parlano di questo libro

Wikipedia in inglese

Nessuno

What can elephant seals tell us about Homer's Iliad? How do gorillas illuminate the works of Shakespeare? What do bloodsucking bats have to do with John Steinbeck? MADAME BOVARY'S OVARIES A Darwinian Look at Literature According to evolutionary psychologist David Barash and his daughter Nanelle, the answers lie in the most important word in biology: evolution. Just like every animal from mites to monkeys, our day-to-day behavior has been shaped by millions of years of natural selection. So it should be no surprise to learn that the natural forces that drive animals in general and Homo sapiens in particular are clearly visible in the creatures of literature, from Henry Fielding's Tom Jones all the way to Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones. Seen through the lens of evolutionary biology, the witty repartee of Jane Austen's courting couples, Othello's tragic rage, the griping of Holden Caulfield, and the scandalous indiscretions of Madame Bovary herself all make a fresh and exciting kind of sense. The ways we fall in--and out--of love, stand by our friends, compete against our enemies, and squabble with our families have their roots in biological imperatives we share not only with other primates but with an amazing array of other creatures. The result is a new way to read, a novel approach to novels (and plays) that reveals how human nature underlies literature, from the great to the not-so-great. Using the cutting-edge ideas of contemporary Darwinism, the authors show how the heroes and heroines of our favorite stories have been molded as much by evolution as by the genius of their creators, revealing a gallery of characters from Agamemnon to Alexander Portnoy, who have more in common with birds, fish, and other mammals than we could ever have imagined. As engaging and informative as a good story, Madame Bovary's Ovaries is both an accessible introduction to a fascinating area of science and a provocatively sideways look at our cherished literary heritage. Most of all, it shows in a delightfully enteraining way how science and literature shed light on each other.

Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche

Descrizione del libro
Riassunto haiku

Discussioni correnti

Nessuno

Copertine popolari

Link rapidi

Voto

Media: (3.38)
0.5 1
1 1
1.5
2 2
2.5
3 17
3.5 1
4 11
4.5 1
5 4

Sei tu?

Diventa un autore di LibraryThing.

 

A proposito di | Contatto | LibraryThing.com | Privacy/Condizioni d'uso | Guida/FAQ | Blog | Negozio | APIs | TinyCat | Biblioteche di personaggi celebri | Recensori in anteprima | Informazioni generali | 203,191,887 libri! | Barra superiore: Sempre visibile