Re: VIRGIL: maladaptive behavior

[James M. Pfundstein]

David Wilson-Okamura wrote:
A couple weeks ago, The Chronicle of Higher Education printed a short essay
by David P. Barash and Nanelle Barash entitled "Biology as a Lens:
Evolution and Literary Criticism" (18 Oct. 2002, B7-B9). The general idea
is that Darwin should join Foucault and Freud in the toolbox of literary
criticism. I mention it here because the test case for the authors' thesis
is Virgil's _Aeneid_. This is how the authors explain the hero's decision
to leave Dido:
"We submit that whatever else he was doing, Aeneas was following
human--that is, biological--impulses, conveniently projected onto the
gods....If Aeneas's genes could spell out their reckoning, it would go
somewhat like this: Although staying with Dido is pleasurable, you--and
thus, your genes--have bigger fish to fry. When the alternative is
maximizing your inclusive fitness by founding a dynasty, a sterile
dalliance with a middle-aged woman is maladaptive....In his conscious mind,
it is the gods who dictate Aeneas's actions, but deep down, his biological
impulses compel him to leave, a kind of ancient 'My genes made  me do it'"
(B9).
It looks to me like they're Barca-ing up the wrong tree. After all, 
the real danger may be that he _will_ have children by Dido. His 
biological impulses should favor him staying: better the Dido you 
know than the Lavinia you don't. The fact that she's had a husband 
who's dead doesn't mean that she's middle-aged. According to Vergil, 
her death is premature (close of Book 4). And it is clearly Ascanius' 
descendants (the Julii) which matter (4.272ff), not any children 
Aeneas might have in Italy. Even in terms of the Barashes' 
quasi-Darwinian premises, this seems an inept reading of the text.

This evolutionary psychology criticism, like the Freudian school 
which preceded it, assumes the (non-literary) theory is so 
universally true that literature from all ages and cultures must 
reflect it. In fact, it doesn't seem to have anything like that kind 
of authority. A good deal of it is outright junk, one step removed 
from saucerology and Atlanteanism.

In short: about par for the course for literary adoptions of 
non-literary scholia (i.e. fair-to-partly useless).

JM("Maladroit du seigneur")P
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