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Darwinism and Thomas Hardy’s Poetry : Centering on Variabilities, Growth, and Change as an Organic Form, and Anti-Anthropocentric View of the Universe

Myungok Yoon 1

1인천대학교

Candidate

ABSTRACT

With the development of science, Darwin’s The Origin of Species evoked the most dramatic controversies in religion, politics, society, and thought by exploding the existing concepts in the Victorian age. And the poet and novelist of the era, Thomas Hardy, who was among the earliest acclaimers of The Origin of Species accepted Darwinism in his literature. He made the convergence of literature and science, or literature and culture. Especially through these fusions in his poetry, he showed the possibilities of new poetry by overturning traditional ideas and old poetic techniques. He also showed the new roles of poetry that it could harmonize with scientific Darwinism. As the results of these, the concepts of variability, growth, and change as an organic form, the anti-anthropocentric view of the universe, pessimism, hap, and rich figurative words in his poetry interlocked smoothly with the same main theories of Darwinism. They played roles in wonder, which made the world of Hardy’s poetry unique and rich. It means that Hardy’s poetry shows the active acceptance of Darwinism and develops into modern poetry beyond the characteristics of traditional Victorian poetry. Hardy also tried to find the location of humans in the order of Nature and give evolutionary permanence to humans through the acceptance of Darwinism. Behind Hardy’s Darwinism, therefore, are hidden his passion on the deep understanding for humans and intelligence on objective introspection for humans. This is Hardy’s humanitarian acceptance of Darwinism, which enforces his creative power of poetry as a vehicle for insight and wonder.

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