English Fiction and the Evolution of Language, 1850–1914 - Couverture rigide

Abberley, Will

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 1107101166 ISBN 13 : 9781107101166

Editeur : Cambridge University Press, 2015

Synopsis

Victorian science changed language from a tool into a natural phenomenon, evolving independently of its speakers. Will Abberley explores how science and fiction interacted in imagining different stories of language evolution. Popular narratives of language progress clashed with others of decay and degeneration. Furthermore, the blurring of language evolution with biological evolution encouraged Victorians to re-imagine language as a mixture of social convention and primordial instinct. Abberley argues that fiction by authors such as Charles Kingsley, Thomas Hardy and H. G. Wells not only reflected these intellectual currents, but also helped to shape them. Genres from utopia to historical romance supplied narrative models for generating thought experiments in the possible pasts and futures of language. Equally, fiction that explored the instinctive roots of language intervened in debates about language standardisation and scientific objectivity. These textual readings offer new perspectives on twenty-first-century discussions about language evolution and the language of science.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Will Abberley is a research fellow for the Faculty of English Language and Literature, University of Oxford, exploring concepts of natural mimicry and deception in Victorian literature and the life sciences.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Cambridge University Press
• Date d'édition: 2015
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1107101166
• ISBN 13: 9781107101166
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 247
• Coordonnées du fabricant: Buchpark GmbH; https://www.buchpark.de; ; Krügerweg 1; Trebbin; Brandenburg; 14959; Allemagne