The last of the race : the growth of a myth from Milton to Darwin
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Bibliographic Information
The last of the race : the growth of a myth from Milton to Darwin
Clarendon Press, 1994
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [308]-320) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This is an innovative and wide-ranging study of the myth of 'The Last of the Race' as it develops in a range of literary and non-literary texts from the late seventeenth to late nineteenth centuries.
The perennial fascination with the end of the world has given rise to many 'last men', from the ancient myths of Noah and Deucalion to contemporary stories of nuclear holocaust. Endangered peoples such as the Maasai or Bush People, continue to attract intense interest. Fiona Stafford begins with Milton and ends with Darwin, exploring the myth-making of their texts in the light of contemporary literary, scientific, political and religious views. Chapters on Milton, Burnet, Defoe, Ossian,
Cowper, Wordsworth, Byron, Mary Shelley, Fenimore Cooper, Bulwer-Lytton, and Darwin combine to form an important account of the traces of this most resonant of cultural preoccupations, providing a distinguished contribution to cultural history as well as to literary studies.
Table of Contents
- "Betwixt the world destroyed and the world restored" - Milton and the universal rack
- the first last man? - Thomas Burnet and the revolution in time
- towards the last of the race - Robinson Cursoe as sole survivor
- the last bards
- "shortliv'd as foliage is the race of man" - the last of the race and the natural world
- "strength in what remains behind" - Wordsworth and the last of the race
- "as the last of my race I must wither away" - the 6th Lord Byron
- the last men
- new ideas of race - "The Last of the Mohicans"
- Edward Bulwer and the "Terror of History"
- the last chapter - after Darwin.
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