Books

This book argues that the Homeric epics can be used in concert with other sources to reconstruct a reasonably accurate portrait of Aegean life at the end of the Greek Dark Age; that patterns of conflict in Homeric society are congruent with patterns widely encountered in world ethnography; that this conflict can be understood as a product of competition, within and between groups, for scarce resources that convert to reproductive advantage; that these pressures were greatly intensified by shortages of young women brought about by de facto polygyny and, possibly, excess mortality of juvenile females; that surpluses of unmated young males resulted in viciously circular patterns of violence; that these unremitting cycles help to explain the tragic elements of the Homeric worldview and the capricious and cruel characterizations of the gods and fate.  

Cambridge University Press, 2008 (AMAZON); Croatian Translation, Kigen Publishing, 2010.

“Gottschall's study of Homer is prudent, patient, thoroughly researched and very smart.” William Deresiewicz, The Nation (20 May 2009)

“Gottschall escorts us to the rich but sparsely inhabited borderland between anthropology, biology, and literary analysis, where he has found gold. The Rape of Troy is an original and important contribution to all three of these fields, and a very good read in addition.”

Edward O. Wilson, University Research Professor Emeritus and Honorary Curator in Entomology at Harvard University

“The Rape of Troy is, above all, a brilliant little book – so brilliant that I wish it were less little. It crackles with intellectual vigor, academic rigor, and the prospect of triggering a revolution in research at the intersection of anthropology, biology, and literature…..[Gottschall’s] account of “Homeric tragedy” rises to a level of sanguinary poetry that might make Cormac McCarthy envious.”

David Barash, University of Washington, Journal of Human Biology, forthcoming.

“There is no way to get bored with Gottschall. He has written a small masterpiece of evolutionary-literary analysis. Only someone with such a thorough knowledge of Homer and Homeric scholarship as he has could do this. This ability to marry disciplines with confidence and authority is rare and should be cherished….For a Homeric moment let us be free to wonder and applaud.”

Robin Fox, Rutgers University, Evolutionary Psychology 6 (2008), 432-435.

"This is a fine book in a vigorous style with a delightfully fresh take on an old story. The best book on Homer I’ve read in years."

Barry Powell, Department of Classics, University of Wisconsin

"A rare combination of literature and science, The Rape of Troy presents an innovative study of the world of Homer from the perspective of evolutionary theory.   The results are striking, highly readable and guaranteed to provoke much thought on an always topical and urgent question: what are the causes of violence?"
Hans van Wees, University College London, Author of Status Warriors and Greek Warfare: myths and realities.

“Though serious in its purpose of advancing knowledge, The Rape of Troy is also powerfully literary. Gottschall became imaginatively absorbed in the Homeric poems, and through the often virtuoso quality of his interpretive rhetoric, he enables the reader to share in his responsiveness to Homer’s poetry. When we speak of criticism that “impresses us with the power, richness, and responsiveness of the critic’s mind,” it is to criticism of this quality that we refer.”

Joseph Carroll, University of Missouri, Style, forthcoming

"Stimulating." Journal of Hellenic Studies, Elizabeth Minchin

"Jonathan Gottschall has conquered the oldest and craggiest peak of Western literature, The Iliad, by a new face. He stakes out the Darwin route to Homer so directly and clearly that he makes the climb inviting and inspiring even to curious newcomers without high-altitude evolutionary training. And the vista he opens up offers us a chance to look in multiple directions: at Homer, at literary evolutionism and its possibilities, and at Gottschall’s role in exploring this new route to discovery." Brian Boyd, Philosophy and Literature.

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Literary studies is at a "tipping point." There is broad agreement that the discipline is in "crisis"--that its aimless, that its intellectual energy is spent, that all of the trends are bad, and that fundamental change will be required to set things right.  But there is little agreement on what those changes should be, and no one can predict which way things will ultimately tip.  Literature, Science, and a New Humanities represents a bold new response to the "crisis" in academic literary studies.  It presents a sweeping critique of dominant literary paradigms, and sketches outlines of a new paradigm based upon scientific foundations.  This book is a call for upheaval; for new theory, method, and ethos; for paradigm shift

Palgrave Macmillan, October 2008 (AMAZON)

“This is an exhilarating book –  a call for an intellectual revolution made with brio, unstinting reason, and an exciting proof of concept.”

Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor, Harvard University, and author of The Language Instinct, The Blank Slate, and The Stuff of Thought.

“Jonathan Gottschall is a major star in the emerging field of literary darwinism. Literature, Science, and a New Humanities makes a brilliant and passionate case that literary studies needs to adopt the research methods of the natural and social sciences in order to combat the intellectual sclerosis that has set in as theory’s grip has weakened. The book is beautifully written, highly intelligent, and morally bracing:  it is at once a strong challenge, a how-to manual, a manifesto, and a clarion call to change.”

Blakey Vermeule, Associate Professor of English, Stanford University

"Literature, Science, and the New Humanities makes an important contribution to debates about scientifically informed literary studies. " Nancy Easterlin, Philosophy and Literature.

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A collection of articles, co-edited with the evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson, which seeks to establish a branch of literary study informed by recent advances in the evolutionary human sciences.  With contributions from eminences like E. O. Wilson, Frederick Crews, the novelist Ian McEwan, and other leading figures in evolutionary biology and literary studies.

Northwestern University Press, 2005 (Amazon)

“The first scholarly anthology dedicated to Literary Darwinism … The Literary Animal spans centuries and individual cultures with bravura, if not bravado.” D. T. Max, The New York Times Magazine

“The book provides the exhilarating sense of witnessing something new taking shape on the intellectual horizon, a ‘proto-paradigm’ that, although grounded, is not yet set in stone, with big questions still being debated … The Literary Animal provides a fine example of the riches that await us as the arts and sciences stop competing and start communicating.” Rebecca Goldstein, Nature

The Literary Animal is a manifesto for forging a connection [between evolution and literary studies], and a collection of proofs of concept. The essays, all original, are pleasantly well-written for an academic collection; the writing is consistently clear, and often stylish. The essays present new ideas and findings—from biology, literary analysis, history, and quantitative surveys, among other fields—that will enlighten anyone interested in literature or the human animal….I found The Literary Animal to be an exciting book. It isn’t often that one can be present at the genesis of a new field of knowledge, especially one with the promise of connecting two realms—the exploration of human nature by science and by art—that clearly have so much to learn from each other.

Steven Pinker, Philosophy and Literature

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Evolution, Literature, and Film: A Reader

For some time now luminaries in literary studies from Terry Eagleton to Stanley Fish and Louis Menand have lamented the dire state of the field--the lack of new ideas, the decline in student numbers, the steady loss of disciplinary prestige. For some time now, too, an evolutionary perspective on literature has offered the most fundamental challenge to the prevailing but self-confessedly exhausted paradigm of poststructuralist Theory. Evolutionary Approaches to Literature and Film gathers together the best writing by the best minds in the field so that this new approach can be widely taught as an alternative to poststructuralist Theory. Co-edited with Brian Boyd (Auckland) and Joseph Carroll (Missouri).

(Columbia University Press, April 2010)

http://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Literature-Film-Brian-Boyd/dp/0231150199/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270134913&sr=8-1

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Graphing Jane Austen: Human Nature in British Novels of the Nineteenth Century

A collaboration with Joseph Carroll, University of Missouri; John Johnson, Penn State University at DuBois; Dan Kruger, University of Michigan. This study is based upon a large-scale study of 500 readers' emotional and analytic responses to the depiction of scores of characters in 144 British novels of the "long" 19^th century (Jane Austen to E. M. Forster).  The data are used to address a diverse array of questions at the intersection of literature and biological psychology.  More generally, Graphing Jane Austen represents an attempt to determine whether, and how fruitfully, the theories and methods of the sciences can be applied to humanities questions.

(Under Review)

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Story Minds (Houghton Mifflin)

Tenative title for a book in process on evolution, brain science, and the humanity's long, strange, ardent love affair with story.

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Man of Pain: The True Story of Odysseus

A novel in process that retells the story of Odysseus from the perspective of Odysseus’ son Telemachus.