Evolutionary Works and Texts
Reading Dobzhansky in an Age of Genomics
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4873500 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Michael P Cohen (0000-0002-7734-7059, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 1-2 |
| Pages | 97-119 |
| Publication date | 2010-12-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Configurations (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1063-1801 • E-ISSN: 1080-6520 |
| Publisher | Project MUSE (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1353/con.2010.0010 |
| OpenAlex | W2045504622 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 10 |
Scientific writing is the most powerful and pervasive nature writing of our era. Instead of using science to interpret literary texts, ecocritics should read classic scientific "works" as "texts" (as Roland Barthes defines these terms), uncovering grounds for stories about nature and premises of modern environmental narratives. This essay examines a classic text of the modern evolutionary synthesis, Theodosius Dobzhansky's Genetics and the Origin of Species (1937), where the conservative force of heredity battles the random change of mutation in an "adaptive landscape," yielding resultant "species." Tensions between metaphors and maps structure his exposition and reveal a still-influential master-narrative
Art · Biology · Epistemology · Heredity · Linguistics · Literature · Narrative · Sociology · Evolution and Science Education · History · Philosophy · Genetics
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How We Became Posthuman
Darwin and the Emergence of Evolutionary Theories of Mind and Behavior
The Genetic Basis of Evolutionary Change
Nothing in Biology Makes Sense except in the Light of Evolution
Evolution, Biogeography, and Maps
A Critique of the Species Concept in Biology
Sex and death
The Scientific Revolution
| Highly cited | No |
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