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There are many examples of cultural evolution and many theories can develop out of them. I agree with Tara in that cultural evolution is very complex and includes every aspect of human life. I think one good way of looking at cultural evolution is studying different genres of literature and seeing how genres emerged out of others and how they have converged with each other. It is obvious to see the divergence of literary works. One hypothesis of divergence could be historical non-fiction to hiostorical fiction to mystery to sci-fi. I think one type of divergence one could study that is most interesting is the divergence of film from written work. With new technology, it seems that english literature has developed this new genre, film. Looking through the course guide for Fall classes, I notice that there are classes in the English deparment that are devoted to interpreting and studying film and genres of film.  With the increasing popularity of movies these days, it makes me wonder whether books may slowly lose recognition. That is difficult to imagine, however, because of the emphasis our educational system puts on reading. I think what can also be included in this study is the comparison of books with film.

Convergence, on the other hand, is a a little more difficult type of evolution to see within culture and more so within literature. I think Whitman's Leaves of Grass is  a one example of the convergence between poetry and prose. It seems that you can take any book these days and find two converging genres. Unlike past texts which seemed to be more strictly categorized (ie. comedy or tragedy; fiction or non-fiction) one can see a combination within almost many texts.