Title
"Sex explains it all": Male Performance, Evolution, and Sexual Selection in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises
Document Type
Article
Annotation
Draws on theories of evolutionary psychology and cognitive science in his examination of masculine performance and its role in sexual selection, concluding that masculinity for the male characters in The Sun Also Rises is based on the judgment of Brett, who chooses her mate according to how he conducts himself. Puckett discusses the count’s scars, Cohn’s broken nose, Mike’s laceration, Jake’s economic value, and Romero’s good looks and bullfighting skills, arguing that in the end Brett rejects biological determinism in favor of freewill as a comforting force in a post-Darwinian world.
Published in
Studies in American Naturalism
Volume
8
Issue
2
Date
Winter 2013
Pages
125-149
Citation
Puckett, James A. “‘Sex explains it all’: Male Performance, Evolution, and Sexual Selection in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises.” Studies in American Naturalism 8, no. 2 (Winter 2013): 125-49.