Few literary scholars appreciate the fact that they labor in a field that lacks ''empirically valid hypotheses,'' or perhaps they prefer it that way. So say Daniel J. Kruger, Maryanne Fisher and Ian Jobling, the authors of a study entitled ''Proper and Dark Heroes as Dads and Cads: Alternative Mating Strategies in British Romantic Literature,'' which was published in the journal Human Nature this fall ...Researchers asked female undergraduates to read passages from the novels of Sir Walter Scott and Ann Radcliffe. The passages describe male characters, either 'dads' or 'cads,' (i.e. 'proper heroes' or 'dark heroes' of Romantic literature. The students were asked to choose which of these characters they would choose for various levels of relationship, from casual sex partner to life-long marriage. The surprising results:
The researchers found that the more serious the relationship in question, the more likely the women were to pick the responsible proper hero, with his ''highly parentally investing disposition,'' though for a quick fling the dark hero was slightly more appealing.Laura Miller comments:
Now for a tough call: which aspect of this odd project to marvel over first -- the tautology in announcing that women, when asked to select a companion for a long-term relationship, will choose the man best suited to a long-term relationship, or the fact that this is what it takes to make people read Scott nowadays?
And Miller punctures the supposedly scientific claim:
Surely inclinations cannot be considered instinctive simply because they respond to a 200-year-old novel (especially when dark heroes are scarce in ''old writings'' that predate Romanticism). Kruger says he thinks that it's the ease with which his ''21st-century female college students'' identified the two types of men that confirms his hypothesis. He could well be right in his theories about mate selection, but he's no literary scholar. Scott's writings may be neglected today, but they were once ubiquitous (he essentially invented the historical novel), and a contemporary college student who's never heard of him has nevertheless read books by writers who were influenced by writers who were influenced by writers who were influenced by Scott. Literary conventions stick around even when specific books do not. Culture manages its own kind of self-perpetuation.
Praise the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul.
I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save.
When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing. --Psalm 146:1-4 NIV
I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save.
When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing. --Psalm 146:1-4 NIV
