Johnathan Kramnick's Against Literary Darwinism

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his journal, Against Literary Darwinism, by Johnathan Kramnick, an English Professor at John Hopkins University, shows the readers a different side of Literary Darwinism. The main idea Kramnick is informing is about Literary Darwinism and how this literature is not as concrete as we all thought. In the beginning of his journal, Kramnick supports his idea with this specific quote."Even if its central arguments are misguided, we might learn something about the place of literary study among the disciplines from the manner in which literary Darwinism fails to make its case."(pg.316) In this quote, Kramnik states that Literary Darwinism explains certain aspects but it does not explain it all. And his thesis continues, " I will argue against literary …show more content…

With this statement, Kramnick will explain it in his own way, so that, hopefully, you will learn the literature the correct way. In the reading, The Four Common Myths About Evolution, we read a completely different approach. The reading by Smith and Sullivan, state that they fully back up Literary Darwinism, but Kramnick is saying in his journal that there is not enough evidence to do so.Also, whether or not art is biological enough as evidence. "Literary Darwinism fails to make its case because it does not take the relation between the humanities and sciences seriously enough."(317) This quote is evidence that Kramnick believes that there is not enough evidence due to their lack of appreciation between humanities and sciences. In a way ,Kramnick is stating that Literary Darwinists are over thinking it. Like in this quote from page 318, from the words of E.O. Wilson, " The essence of the argument, is that the brain exists because it promotes the survival and multiplication of the genes that direct its traits and predispositions could be understood as adaptations in the same way as traits of the body." The Darwinists don't produce enough evidence due to overthinking.

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