Evolutionary Kinship in Victorian Atheist and Agnostic Authors
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University of Kentucky UKnowledge Theses and Dissertations--English English 2015 The Joys of Earth: Evolutionary Kinship in Victorian Atheist and Agnostic Authors Keri R. Stevenson University of Kentucky, [email protected] Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Stevenson, Keri R., "The Joys of Earth: Evolutionary Kinship in Victorian Atheist and Agnostic Authors" (2015). Theses and Dissertations--English. 26. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/english_etds/26 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the English at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations--English by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STUDENT AGREEMENT: I represent that my thesis or dissertation and abstract are my original work. Proper attribution has been given to all outside sources. 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Stevenson, Student Dr. Ellen Rosenman, Major Professor Dr. Andrew Doolen, Director of Graduate Studies THE JOYS OF EARTH: EVOLUTIONARY KINSHIP IN VICTORIAN ATHEIST AND AGNOSTIC AUTHORS __________________________________________ DISSERTATION __________________________________________ A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky By: Keri Rebecca Stevenson Lexington, Kentucky Director: Dr. Ellen Rosenman, Professor of English Lexington, Kentucky 2015 Copyright © Keri Rebecca Stevenson 2015 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION THE JOYS OF EARTH: EVOLUTIONARY KINSHIP IN VICTORIAN ATHEIST AND AGNOSTIC AUTHORS Darwin’s evolutionary theory provided, for some atheist and agnostic authors in Victorian England, a theory of kinship and community, of investment in the world, that had been missing before. Without a “creation” story that could match the Biblical version, those who stood outside the dominant Christian paradigm rarely had the words or concepts to construct their own visions of how humans fit into the existence of other species, into landscapes, and into a world that, if unfallen, seemed resistant to other explanations. Those who did construct alternate mythologies usually reared them on a Christian base. Into the Victorian loss of faith, Darwin’s theory irrupted, another crack in the foundation of Christian belief but a living tree for those who could accept its consequences and trace them to their logical ends. Darwin’s own beliefs and supporters tended in the agnostic direction; scientific evidence gave a solid, often intensely interesting, fertile ground for the growth of stories that did not have a teleology and rejected transcendence and separation from the animal world. This tension, neither separation nor absolute sameness as other species, but a middle ground, constantly tied in inescapable bonds, at once without traditional comfort and full of the attempts to find a new joy, can be expressed as kinship-in- difference. These ideas still hold resonance within the modern world, where some refuse to accept that human beings are descended from other species, and with it, refuse to accept that human beings are bounded within the environment of Earth and must suffer from its catastrophes. Fantasies of escape and theological and teleological convictions still flourish in modern nature writing, side-by-side with a conception of unity that breaks down all differences between humans and animals and subsumes them into an amorphous mass. Kinship is a way to rethink the human connection with the environment that offers a mixture of hope, realism, and reevaluation of the science that has shaped so much of our engagement with the world. Victorian atheist and agnostic writers, such as George Eliot, George Meredith, and Algernon Charles Swinburne, and their convictions, provide one extremely lively and relevant model. KEYWORDS: Victorian Literature, Darwinian Evolutionary Theory, Atheism and Agnosticism, Ecocriticism, Kinship THE JOYS OF EARTH: EVOLUTIONARY KINSHIP IN VICTORIAN ATHEIST AND AGNOSTIC AUTHORS By: Keri Rebecca Stevenson Dr. Ellen Rosenman _____________________ Director of Dissertation Dr. Andrew Doolen ______________________ Director of Graduate Studies December 9, 2015 _______________________ Dedicated to my parents, Debbie and Bob Stevenson, who encouraged my love of animals; my friends Dr. Devorah Kennedy, Dr. Rhonda Smith-Daugherty, and Prof. Megan Burnett, who encouraged my writing; and to Dr. Ellen Rosenman, my dissertation director, who encouraged my thinking. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS No book this long can be written without the help of multiple people; I would like to thank them here. Thanks are due most of all to my dissertation director, Dr. Ellen Rosenman, who gave me the critical comments that changed the direction of the project and allowed me to shrink my unbounded sights to an actual horizon, and also taught the class that introduced me to George Eliot. Thank you as well to my dissertation committee: Dr. Randall Roorda, who taught me about ecocriticism; Dr. Jonathan Allison, who stepped in at the last minute to become one of my committee members during my oral exam eight years ago and provided valuable commentary; Dr. Phil Harling, who gave me an interesting perspective from History; and my outside examiner, Dr. Linda Worley, who suggested insights for further research I might pursue during my defense. Thanks, as well, to the friendships I enjoyed at the University of Kentucky and Alice Lloyd College, I maintained the dedication to write and finish. In the order I came to know them: Dr. Cindy Salmons of Alice Lloyd College, Professor Megan Burnett of Bellarmine University, Dr. Rhonda Smith-Daugherty of Alice Lloyd, and Dr. Devorah Kennedy of Alice Lloyd. I could not have done this without you. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter One: Introduction: The Joy of Agnostic Kinship The Potentially Godless World………………………………………………..………1 Kinship-in-Difference………………………………………………………………..11 The Structure of This Dissertation………………………………………………...…26 Chapter Two: ‘The Community of Descent:’ Darwin and the Tension and Joy of Kinship Introduction………………………………………………………………….……….30 “Infinite Complexity”: Darwin and The Origin of Species………………………….37 The “Community of Descent”: Darwin and The Descent of Man…………………...46 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………...57 Chapter Three: ‘We Ought to Know About Our Fellow-Creatures’: George Eliot and the Tensions of Kinship Introduction…………………………………………………………………………..62 The Shadow of Kinship: The Mill on the Floss……………………………………...70 The Light of Kinship: Silas Marner………………………………………………….94 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………….103 Chapter Four: Comic Unfaith: Meredith’s Agnostic Joy of Kinship Introduction…………………………………………………………………………106 Heaven on Earth: Meredith’s Poetry………………………………………………..113 An Education in Kinship: The Separatists Who Learn Better……………………...126 The Fate of Separatists……………………………………………………………...141 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………….155 Chapter Five: ‘We Too Shall Surely Pass Out of the Sun’: Swinburne, Anti-Theism, and the Kinship of Mortality Introduction…………………………………………………………………………157 The Nightingale: Sappho…………………………………………………………...163 Birds and the Death of the Afterlife: “The Garden of Proserpine” and “Hertha”….173 Creatures of the Sea: Tristram of Lyonesse………………………………………...182 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………….199 References…………………………………………………………………………………..202 Vita………………………………………………………………………………………….213 iv Chapter One: Introduction: The Joy of Agnostic Kinship The Potentially Godless World To live in a godless or potentially godless world, one in which the answer to questions like “Is there a god?”, “Are humans immortal?”, and “Is there an afterlife?” must be either “No” or “I don’t know,” may be frightening. It can be a source of enough doubt and depression to cause significant stress to those who lose their faith. Yet it can also be a source of significant strength and new opportunities, unconstrained by religious ideas that, even if more honored in the breach than in the observance, linger with disquieting force. Atheist and agnostic writers can,