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In the past, for me, the word “evolution” triggered thoughts about Biological evolution: Darwin, Wallace, Natural Selection, Adaptation, Phylogenetic Trees and everything in between. I knew humans evolved too in their lifetimes, and constantly changed in order to adapt to society and life in general. However I never really gave much thought to this sort of change and I never thought about comparing it to biological evolution. Speaking of different types of evolution, I had never given thought to literary evolution before taking the class. I knew that literature varied from place to place and from different time periods but I never saw it as comparable to something like biological evolution; as something with its own species (genres) and its own battle with the test of time. Now I look at texts that have become a part of the literary canon, that are still popular to this day and wonder what made them successful. For example, instead of just reading a play Shakespeare wrote and analyzing the content, I’m curious as to what makes a certain play of his stand out more than something else written in that time or even something written afterwards. I’ve always loved learning about biological evolution and studying the commonalities between earth’s organisms but now the concept of literary evolution has sparked a new curiosity within me.

Also, taking the class has made me realize the relationship between science and literature. For a long time I’ve been told that there’s a distinct boundary between the two which is not entirely impossible but just difficult to overcome. Now I don’t see so many differences. I’ve realized that the two topics come from the same source, the human mind. Some people may choose to keep a boundary between the two but others can build a bridge within their mind that can explore both worlds with a similar perspective. And even if some people are convinced that there is a boundary, the two topics still have a similar ancestor. That ancestor would be the simple act of observing the world around oneself and recording those observations.