JOURNAL ARTICLE

Evolution and Political Revolution in Blackwood's Periodical Poetry.

  • Published In: Victorian Periodicals Review, 2023, v. 56, n. 2. P. 158 1 of 3

  • Database: Historical Abstracts with Full Text 2 of 3

  • Authored By: Dewitt, Anne 3 of 3

Abstract

In May 1861, the middlebrow British monthly Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine published a comic poem titled "The Origin of Species." While foregrounding Charles Darwin, the poem portrays evolution as teleological, progressive, and driven by the agency and desires of individual organisms—a misrepresentation of Darwin's theory. I argue that the poem undertakes this misrepresentation deliberately: the version of evolution it attributes to Darwin was associated with radical politics and threats to the social order. The Blackwood's poems call up these political associations to reduce the novelty of Darwin's theory and to hint at its dangerous social tendencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Additional Information

  • Source:Victorian Periodicals Review. 2023/06, Vol. 56, Issue 2, p158
  • Document Type:Article
  • Subject Area:History
  • Publication Date:2023
  • ISSN:0709-4698
  • DOI:10.1353/vpr.2023.a912316
  • Accession Number:173865412
  • Copyright Statement:Copyright of Victorian Periodicals Review is the property of Johns Hopkins University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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