Mimesis and the Human Animal: On the Biogenetic Foundations of Literary Representation.

Williams, Philip F.

While few practical critics of literature would deny the existence of extralinguistic reality or of knowledge independent of language, poststructuralist assumptions to that effect have become routine for self-styled cutting-edge theorists who are now the new Establishment in most elite American university departments of English and modern languages. Yet by downgrading the human subject to the status of an entirely malleable linguistic or social construct, poststrncturalists have fashioned a scientifically implausible caricature of Homo sapiens and obscured the origins and key functions of narrative as the basis of literary expression. In Mimesis and the Human Animal: On the Biogenetic Foundations of Literary Representation Robert Storey's expertise in both biology and literature provides the basis for his trenchant critique of widely held poststrncturalist beliefs, while the bulk of his study is devoted to developing an innovative alternative framework for literary study based on evolutionary biology and the behavioral sciences.

Since many humanities scholars are prone to write off a biological or evolutionary approach to literary studies as "biological determinism," Storey takes pains to explain how biogenetics does not mechanically determine literary representation, but rather works in conjunction with various cultural factors by setting the basic parameters within which cultural and individual variation are possible. The emphasis upon biogenetics and Darwinian theory bespeaks Storey's turn "toward a conception of literary production and appreciation as 'acts of a human brain in a human body in a human environment which that brain must make intelligible if it is to survive.'" Mimesis, in turn, comes naturally to a large-brained primate like man that is hard-wired for narrations that enhance the intelligibility of the human environment.

Storey's argument is complex and draws upon a startlingly broad array of sources, even for a veteran interdisciplinarian. The book includes chapters on the biogenetic foundations of human nature and society; the paradox of how the "selfish" gene can wind up "selecting" altruistic behavior that enhances the cohesion of family or social group; the development and functions of consciousness in the human individual; the social functions of narrative in an evolutionary context; the evolution and adaptive social functions of tragedy and comedy; and an analysis of Iris Murdoch's A Fairly Honorable Defeat as an example of artfully mimetic narrative that clarifies social relationships on a holistic level while making them "less communicative in analytical terms" for largely left-hemisphere processing.

To provide an example of the book's style of argument, I shall summarize some of Storey's points relating to comedy. Homo sapiens is not unique as a social animal, for the emotions connected with sociability and other adaptive behaviors are found in many other animals, most prominently the other primates. The emotions are more basic to human cognition than is rationality, which also varies across cultures much more than emotions do. The range and types of emotions in Homo sapiens correlate so closely with those of other primates that the human smile forms a close homologue with the submissive and gregarious "silent bared-teeth display" and playful "relaxed openmouth display" of various primates. The smile-inducing genre of comedy shares a sense of mastery over the incongruous or unexpected (on the auditor's part) with the behaviors accompanying the two types of aforementioned primate display. Both comedy and the two types of primate display evoke the pleasure of "release from the necessity of negotiating social compromise" and, at the most basic level, perform adaptive functions.

Mimesis and the Human Animal succeeds in showing that for scholars of literature with a truly theoretical bent, study of the biological and behavioral sciences can provide a solid foundation for promising interdisciplinary literary research.

Philip F. Williams Arizona State University