| At the beginning of the twentieth century, American culture struggled to reorganize its world view and its view of the individual in the light of biological discoveries applied to cultural beliefs. Drawing upon evolutionary themes, some American writers struggled with the ambiguity between the civilized and the bestial aspects of human nature. While naturalism encompassed many of these literary explorations, "pulp" fiction also employed biological language to present the possibilities and consequences of a scientific world view. An analysis of three works and their authors demonstrates through specific literary examples the degree to which Darwinian evolution and Spencerian philosophy have filtered into the novels of this transitional period in American literary history. The use of Darwinian language by each author demonstrates contradictory themes; though they begin with the same Darwinian biology, each author presents a different view of what the man/animal ambiguity means to the human condition. |
