Fátima Vieira

Jorge Bastos da Silva

Sara Graça da Silva

Charles Darwin’s curiosity had a remarkable childlike enthusiasm driven by an almost compulsive appetite for a constant process of discovery, which he never satiated despite his many voyages. He would puzzle about the smallest things, from the wonders of barnacles to the different shapes, colours and textures of the beetles which he obsessively collected, from flowers and stems to birds, music and language, and would dedicate years to understanding the potential significance of everything he saw. Darwin’s findings and theories relied heavily on that same curiosity, on seeking and answering questions, however long these would take to clarify. His son Francis Darwin often recalls how “he would ask himself ‘now what do you want to say’ and his answer written down would often disentangle the confusion”. In fact, “disentangling confusions” seems to have been the driving force behind Darwin’s scientific pursuits, as he was struck with bewilderment when contemplating the luxuriousness of life. It was also the impetus for this book. The true implications of Darwin’s legacy remain as controversial to the critics of our time as they were to his contemporaries. Darwin’s impact within and beyond the biological sciences is both daunting and exhilarating, and attests to the need for an interdisciplinary approach by remaining a challenge to many scholars in the most diverse fields. The recent revival of his theories has opened a Pandora’s box of different theoretical studies that are particularly receptive to exploring new and exciting angles of research.

Cross-disciplinary Reflections on the Man and His Legacy

(Dis)Entangling Darwin

Joana Matos Frias

This collection commemorates the centenary of decisive events in the history of international Modernism. The second decade of the twentieth century witnessed an extraordinary burst of creativity and inquiry which left an indelible mark in literature, music, and the visual arts, as well as in their respective theoretical frameworks. As with other moments of crisis, the period was exceptionally rich in innovation and experimentation. For literature and the arts, it was also a time of great clashes, both contextually, most obviously because authors were faced with the events of the Great War, and internally, through radical contestation of the aesthetic and intellectual legacies of the past. The passing of one hundred years provides an opportunity for homage, as well as critical assessment of intentions and accomplishments. The present volume brings together the work of scholars who focus on both early and late Modernism and its long-ranging cultural and literary reverberations, in order to widen the reader’s perspective of the significance of the modernist movement for contemporary art, theory and criticism. Contributions range from the Little Magazines and James Joyce to post-World War II theatre of the absurd; from literature in English to literature written in other languages, such as French and Portuguese.

Jorge Bastos da Silva

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