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Speculative fiction is a literature which attempts to acquaint humanity with the "other" in whatever shape or form it may take. In the instance of the natural world, speculative fiction has challenged the boundaries of modern fiction by addressing the pivotal role which the natural world plays in the lives of human beings. Is humanity a part of or apart from the natural world? Do humanity and the natural world shape one another? If so, how? These are pertinent questions that many speculative authors are attempting to answer in works like A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller, andThe War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells.

Many theoretical models can be used as lenses to further delve into the role of Nature in speculative fiction. Among them, the ideas of Charles Darwin have directly influenced writers such as H. G. Wells in several of his works. Although often misconstrued, Darwin's models of natural selection and evolution can be applied to works like A Canticle for Leibowitz and The War of the Worlds to show how the realities of the characters are shaped by these theories concerning natural systems. Using Darwin as a lens may serve to give a more biologically-based approach to texts written shortly after the advent of works like The Origin of Species and The Descent of Man. Darwin's works may give clues to the premises behind the Martian invasion in The War of the Worlds and humanity's destructive bent in the more recent A Canticle for Leibowitz.

In this project, I hope to explore not only the various ways in which Darwin's models served to influence early works like The War of the Worlds, but also how later evolutions of Darwin's theory, i.e. Social Darwinism, have helped to shape later works such as Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz. I will be looking at particular paradigmatic scenes in an attempt to tease out these theories and explicate their usefulness to the authors in question.

As Lynn White says, "Darwin was the first person to make Man a part of Nature." It will be part of my project to discover, through Darwinian ideas dealing with evo- lution, such as natural and sexual selection, how the characters in the novels and novels themselves seem to place humanity in the context of the natural world. What is Nature from a Darwinian stance? How are the characters, the writing style, the ways in which the natural world is approached, emblematic of this particular stance? How do Darwinian ideas, as expressed in War of the Worlds and A Canticle for Leibowitz, place humankind within the context of Nature?

In corollation with this, I want to explore how Darwinian models and ideas have changed or been appropriated, in some cases, by different theorists, both biological and social. Wells and Miller will provide some interesting clues as to how Darwinian theory has evolved due to the nature of the timespan between them. How true to form is Wells' model of evolution in The War of the Worlds? Is Miller's novel emblematic of the same theories that Wells was working with or is A Canticle for Leibowitz a different animal, in some senses? These, and the above questions, are things I plan to explore within my project.

Texts thus far include:

- The War of the Worlds: The Critical Edition, H. G. Wells

- A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter Miller

- The Portable Darwin, ed. by Duncan Porter and Peter Graham