Afterword
The afterword evaluates the potential ranges of the methodology for reading comparative modernism proposed in The Evolutions of Modernist Epic. Many more epic works than those discussed in detail could be analyzed in relation to the eclipse of Darwinism in the early twentieth century. These include, for instance, Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. In addition, there are a number of benefits promised by a thorough understanding of biocentric modernism. Hitherto, however, little attention has been paid to the eclipse and its impact on modernism. One reason for this is that for many years the eclipse was regarded as a scientific mistake. The afterword describes how scholars of evolution, including Lynn Margulis, Elizabeth Grosz, and others, have come to reconsider its place in relation to Neo-Darwinism. It is within this larger reconsideration that it is worthwile returning to modernist epic as a source for radical thinking about human and literary evolution.