English 4970: Capstone Seminar

Modern Literature and the Darwinian Revolution

Timothy Materer

MW 2:00-3:15 GEOL 105

Office: 228 Tate MW 1:00-1:45 & by apt.: MatererT@missouri.edu

Texts

Charles Darwin, The Norton Darwin. 3rd. Edition

Poems by Alfred Lord Tennyson and Robert Frost

H. G. Wells, The Time Machine & War of the Worlds (Fawcett Premier)

_________, Island of Dr. Moreau (Bantam)

William Golding. The Inheritors (Harcourt)

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Galapagos (Dell)

James Tiptree, Jr. (Alice Sheldon), Her Smoke Rose Up

Forever (Tachyon)

Alexander Korda, The Shape of Things to Come (film)

Stanley Kubrick, 2001(film)

The Course

Evolution is the major organizing principle behind the life sciences, a crucial influence on the social sciences, and a guiding metaphor in the physical sciences and the humanities. Yet evolution is as controversial today as it was when Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species in 1859, or when the Scopes “Monkey Trial” riveted America’s attention in 1925, or when the Kansas Board of Education voted in 1999 to remove the teaching of evolution from the state's science curriculum, and when three presidential candidates declared in 2007 that they did not believe in evolution. In this course, we will explore how modern writers reflect on the implications of evolution for our understanding of human nature and the future of humanity. Robert Frost wrote, “Another metaphor that has interested us in our time and has done all our thinking for us is the metaphor of evolution.” This course will show how we need to think critically about evolution rather than let the metaphor merely condition our thought.

The Schedule

Week 1 Aug 20-22 20: Evolution as a Metaphor 22: Darwin, Galapagos 67-81

Week 2 Aug 27-29 Origin of Species Intro. 67-81 / Struggle for Existence 95-124 / The Eye 144-47 / The Argument 158-74

Week 3 Sept 5 3: Labor Day / Descent of Man: Intro. 175-84 / Wisdom Teeth 190 / Reason 213-221 / Pedigree 228-29 / Male & Female 234-236 / God, Sexual Selection, Conclusion 248-54

Week 4 Sept 10-12 Darwinian Perspectives: The Time Machine

Week 5 Sept 17-19 The Struggle for Existence: Wells, War of the Worlds

Week 6 Sept 24-26 “Intelligent Design”: Wells, The Island of Dr. Moreau

Week 7 Oct 1-3 Wells, Dr. Moreau / Grandeur in this View of Things: Wells, Things to Come

Week 8 Oct 8-10 Golding, The Inheritors

Week 9 Oct 15-17 The Inheritors

Week 10 Oct 22-24 Clarke & Kubrick, 2001

Week 11 Oct 31-N2 Vonnegut, Galapagos

Week 12 Nov 5-7 Tiptree, Her Smoke Rose Up: The Last Flight of Dr. Ain, The Screwfly Solution

Week 13 Nov 12-14 Tiptree, Her Smoke Rose Up: A Momentary Taste of Being

Thanksgiving Break Nov 19-23

Week 14 Nov 26-28 Reports / Nov. 28: Draft Section of Final Paper

Week 15 Dec 3-5 Reports / Workshops / Final Paper

Supplemental Essays in the Norton Darwin

Paley, Natural Theology, 41

Thomas, Uncertainty of Science, 304-08

Gould, Punctuated Equilibrium, 344

_____, Biological Potentiality, 415

Huxley, Thomas, Evolution and Ethics, 501-03

Huxley, Julian, Evolutionary Ethics, 503-11

Writing Assignments

Students will develop a research project on an author of their choice. Every paper must (1) devote approximately one half of its length to the fiction writers and essayists that we have read in the course in order to develop a context for its topic, (2) demonstrate a thorough command of the relevant research materials, (3) express your personal insights into the topic through an careful analysis of literary works.

This course focuses on writing as a continuous process of critical thinking. Students will have weekly writing assignments that call for frequent revisions. As a capstone course, 4970 requires independent thinking and research that will culminate in "a substantial piece of student-designed research." All students will complete the following:

• Five short papers. These writing assignments that ask students to focus on a specific aspect of one literary text such as novel by Wells or Vonnegut and then progress to comparing a number of different works and critical articles about them.

• A long paper asking students to begin thinking and writing about the impact of evolutionary thinking in works by various authors. The goals of this assignment are: to encourage critical thinking about Darwinism and literature and to develop a working knowledge of the vocabulary used to discuss intellectual and cultural issues in literature. A version of the final research project will be due before Thanksgiving break, and students will be required to revise it thoroughly before submitting it at the end of the semester.

Quizzes and Writing Exercises (1000 points)

There will be frequent quizzes on the assigned material and in-class writing assignments.

All papers due on Wednesdays:

Week 3 Paper 1 100

Week 5 Paper 2 Darwin and Wells 100

Week 7 Paper 3 Dr. Moreau's Explanation 100

Week 9 Paper 4 Golding Paper 100

Week 11 Paper 5 Research on Personal Topic 100

Week 13 Draft of Final Paper 100

Week 15 Final paper due Dec. 5 300

(Total Points: 900 for writing assignments; 100 for quizzes and exercises)

If you have any doubts about your progress in the course, please come in during office hours or make an appointment to see me. Everyone should see me at least once during office hours.

Policies

Absences Students who accumulate three (3) absences (in a course that meets only twice per week) will be dropped from the course with a failing grade (2 lates = 1 absence). If you know of classes you must miss (for example, because of family or university activities), inform the instructor well in advance and be careful not to risk missing additional classes. Late papers will lose a grade for each class day they are late. No food, drink, or noise-making electronic devices in class. Please try not leave the room in the middle of class. Note: you as well as the teacher are responsible for the return of written exercises or tests. When assignments are returned, if you are not in class that day, or if the teacher does not return an assignment you have turned in, you need to ask him after class, or when you are next in class, if he has your assignment.

Academic Integrity Students are expected to know and follow proper documentation procedures whenever they use material from another source, whether in paraphrase, summary, or direct quotation. Students who submit as their own work a document taken in whole or part from another person’s writing (including another student’s) without proper acknowledgement are guilty of plagiarism. Students who submit plagiarized work will fail the assignment and be reported to the Office of the Provost, which will determine whether the offense requires further disciplinary action. Students who allow another person to copy their work will also be reported to the Provost.

Disabilities Students with disabilities who may need classroom academic adjustments or auxiliary aids and services, including accommodations for access to library materials on reserve, are required to register with Disability Services, AO48 Brady Commons, 882-4696. This office reviews disability documentation provided by students, and then works with students and faculty in planning any disability-related academic needs you may have.