English Fiction and the Evolution of Language, 1850–1914

Explores how Victorian fiction and science imagined the evolution of language, from primordial noise to modern English.

Will Abberley (Author)

9781107101166, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 21 May 2015

247 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 1.8 cm, 0.5 kg

'Abberley's book is a slim one (four chapters and 175 pages of text), but it is unusually wide-ranging and comprehensive, citing an astonishing number of novels and stories, and drawing together material from both familiar and obscure sources. Abberley packs a great deal into every paragraph: his readings are rich and condensed, and on every page he demonstrates the value of the twenty-first-century critic's awareness of the language concerns of the Victorian and Edwardian periods. This is a book to be absorbed and used.' Donald S. Hair, Victorian Studies

Victorian science changed language from a tool into a natural phenomenon, evolving independently of its speakers. Will Abberley explores how science and fiction interacted in imagining different stories of language evolution. Popular narratives of language progress clashed with others of decay and degeneration. Furthermore, the blurring of language evolution with biological evolution encouraged Victorians to re-imagine language as a mixture of social convention and primordial instinct. Abberley argues that fiction by authors such as Charles Kingsley, Thomas Hardy and H. G. Wells not only reflected these intellectual currents, but also helped to shape them. Genres from utopia to historical romance supplied narrative models for generating thought experiments in the possible pasts and futures of language. Equally, fiction that explored the instinctive roots of language intervened in debates about language standardisation and scientific objectivity. These textual readings offer new perspectives on twenty-first-century discussions about language evolution and the language of science.

Introduction: language under a microscope
1. The future of language in prophetic fiction
2. Primitive language in imperial, prehistoric and scientific romances
3. Organic orality and the historical romance
4. Instinctive signs: nature and culture in dialogue
Conclusion: widening the lens
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Evolution [PSAJ], History of science [PDX], Literary studies: from c 1900 - [DSBH], Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [DSBF]