Cultural Selection: Why Some Achievements Survive The Test Of Time And Others Don't

by Gary Taylor

Acclaimed literary scholar Gary Taylor creates a new paradigm for understanding cultural history. He argues that culture is not what was done, but what is remembered and that the social competition among different memories is as dynamic as the biological struggle for survival. Taylor builds his argument on a broad base of cultural achievements, from Michelangelo to Frankenstein, from Shakespeare to Casablanca, from Freud to Invisible Man. He spans the continents to draw upon Japanese literature, Native American history, ancient Greek philosophy, and modern American architecture.

Genres: History

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Gary Taylor is George Matthew Edgar Professor of English at Florida State University.

There is more than one author with this name

Reviews

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing book that is provocative and powerful in its reasoning. By applying evolutionary theory to art, via memory, Taylor shows how punctuated equilibrium best explains rapid and sudden growth in various art forms. By looking at aesthetics through the prism of ecosystems, you understand why Elizabethan drama flowered so suddenly, after Western drama had been in a period of relative stasis for so long. This book was given to me way back in the 1990s, but the ideas have stuck with me ever since. The writing is pellucid and often amusing. You leave the book feeling like you have wandered through an art museum with an amazingly erudite companion, who used the trip to propound a new theory of how cultures change. Highly recommended.

[sologdin · Rating 2 out of 5]

as the title implies, adopts some darwinian concepts in explaining longevity for particular aesthetic products over others. not entirely convincing, but author is always engaging, witty, learned.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to admit that I didn't get all the way through this book due to school crashing in around my ears, but I didn't abandon it because I lost interest. Very insightful book.