McCracken, Saskia (2021) (R)evolutionary animal tropes in the works of Charles Darwin and Virginia Woolf. PhD thesis. https://theses.gla.ac.uk/82313/ Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/
[email protected] (R)evolutionary Animal Tropes in the Works of Charles Darwin and Virginia Woolf Saskia McCracken BA (Hons) MLitt Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of PhD School of Critical Studies College of Arts University of Glasgow July 2021 © Saskia McCracken 2021 1 Abstract This thesis is the first full-length study of Woolf’s preoccupation, across her writing, with Darwin’s works. I will draw on the recent animal turn in literary criticism to provide original insight into the politics of Darwin’s animal tropes, and Woolf’s Darwinian animal tropes. My central research questions are how, to what extent, and with what effect, did Woolf engage with Darwin’s works, particularly his animal tropes? I will make two key claims in this thesis. First, I will argue that Woolf’s engagement with Darwin’s works – particularly the critically overlooked Descent of Man (1871) – was more sustained, extensive, and subversive than previously recognised.