David P. Barash

"¿Qué pueden enseñarnos los elefantes marinos acerca de La Iliada de Homero? ¿Cómo ayudan los gorilas a entender las obras de Shakespeare? ¿Qué tienen que ver los murciélagos vampiro con Steinbeck? En esta vision darwiniana de la literatura Barash y Barash nos pasean por entre los clasicos para explicar por que sus personajes y sus tramas parecen reales. Y esto nos lleva a un concepto clave comun en casi todos los enfoques del analisis literario, pero que es especialmente importante para el analisis evolutivo de la literatura: la verosimilitud. La unica diferencia entre ficcion y no ficcion comento Mark Twain de forma algo ironica es que la ficcion deberia ser totalmente verosimil. ¿Como se consigue eso? Los personajes de ficcion son verosimiles cuando revelan su naturaleza humana, es decir, cuando se comportan segun las expectativas biologicas. Eso es lo que subyace detras del humor contagioso de Falstaff, la pasion obsesiva de Heathcliff, las agallas de Jane Eyre, la mezcla de ingenuidad y sabiduria de Huck Finn y el anhelo ancestral de realizacion de Augie March. Como dice Harold Bloom: La asombrosa habilidad [de Shakespeare] para presentar distintas voces de seres imaginarios verosimiles que resulten coherentes y distintos entre si se debe en parte a su sentido de la realidad, el mas profundo que ha inventado jamas la literatura."

Travel through history and around the world to learn about the greatest mistakes, blunders, and bloopers of all time! Everyone makes mistakes and nearly everyone likes to know about them, especially when made by someone else! The Worst Blunders of All Time: Shocking Tales from Pandoras Box to Putins Invasion presents some of our most notable blunders, from the silly to the consequential, from ancient history to current events. It offers the pleasure of Schadenfreude and of an easy-going reading experience, as well ashere and theresome learning opportunities. The reader will see when relatively big things have gone wrong and couldnt be called back, such as iconic, mythical blunders like Pandora opening that troublesome box and Eve taking her ill-advised bite, to great historical oops such as Napoleons invasion of Russia in 1812, as well as some less monumental but nonetheless exemplary mistakes, such as the Curse of the Bambino, when the Boston Red Sox sold Babe Ruthat the time, a pitcherto the New York Yankees. These and other exemplary oops are presented in a light-hearted way, with some exceptions being catastrophic, current catastrophes, such as Trumps egregious mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Author David P. Barash will take readers from the tragic to the whimsical, with the latter represented by, for example, Wrong Way Corrigan, an early twentieth century aviator who thought he was flying nonstop from New York to California, but, confused by a heavy fog, ended up in Ireland. Pointing out these and other mistakes will be an exercise in Monday morning quarterbacking and 20-20 hindsight. Thus, The Worst Blunders of All Time shall backstrapolate: looking in the rear-view mirror at mistakes made by others.The Worst Blunders of All Time is neither an advice book nor a series of cautionary tales. Its an easy and accessible read, especially useful as therapy in these difficult times. However, its nonetheless accurate and informative, giving rise to some potentially useful take-home messages, keyed to its material. Ideally, we should all benefit from our own mistakes, making lemonade out of lemons, while also following Eleanor Roosevelts advice: Learn from the mistakes of others. You cannot live long enough to make them all yourself.

Approaches To Peace Provides A Unique And Interdisciplinary Sampling Of Classic Articles And Short Literary Selections Focusing On The Diverse Aspects Of Peace And Conflicts Studies. Readings Cover The Causes Of War And Proposed Means Of Preventing It-So Called "Negative Peace"-And Also Reflect Upon The Universal Concern For "Positive Peace". The Material Examines Nonviolence Movements, Peace Movements, Religious Inspirations, And Our Future Prospects For Peace.

En este libro los autores, un zoólogo y un psiquiatra, utilizan los resultados de disciplinas científicas como la biología, la fisiología y la antropología para demostrar que la monogamia es un mito tanto entre los animales como entre los seres humanos.

What can elephant seals tell us about Homers Iliad? How do gorillas illuminate the works of Shakespeare? What do bloodsucking bats have to do with John Steinbeck? MADAME BOVARYS OVARIESA Darwinian Look at Literature According to evolutionary psychologist David Barash and his daughter Nanelle, the answers lie in the most important word in biology: evolution. Just like every animal from mites to monkeys, our day-to-day behavior has been shaped by millions of years of natural selection. So it should be no surprise to learn that the natural forces that drive animals in general and Homo sapiens in particular are clearly visible in the creatures of literature, from Henry Fieldings Tom Jones all the way to Helen Fieldings Bridget Jones. Seen through the lens of evolutionary biology, the witty repartee of Jane Austens courting couples, Othellos tragic rage, the griping of Holden Caulfield, and the scandalous indiscretions of Madame Bovary herself all make a fresh and exciting kind of sense. The ways we fall inand outof love, stand by our friends, compete against our enemies, and squabble with our families have their roots in biological imperatives we share not only with other primates but with an amazing array of other creatures. The result is a new way to read, a novel approach to novels (and plays) that reveals how human nature underlies literature, from the great to the not-so-great.Using the cutting-edge ideas of contemporary Darwinism, the authors show how the heroes and heroines of our favorite stories have been molded as much by evolution as by the genius of their creators, revealing a gallery of characters from Agamemnon to Alexander Portnoy, who have more in common with birds, fish, and other mammals than we could ever have imagined.As engaging and informative as a good story, Madame Bovarys Ovaries is both an accessible introduction to a fascinating area of science and a provocatively sideways look at our cherished literary heritage. Most of all, it shows in a delightfully enteraining way how science and literature shed light on each other.