Darwin Walking Backward: A Novel

• Other Authors: Hauser, Christina Joyce (authoraut)
• Format: Others
• Language: English; English
• Published: Florida State University
• Online Access: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_2016SU_Hauser_fsu_0071E_13352

Darwin Walking Backward follows Nolan and Elsa Grey, estranged half-siblings, whose father is suspected of drowning himself off Leap’s Island. Their father was an eminent evolutionary biologist whose fall from grace led him to Leap’s, home of a new movement of scientists, called The Reversalists, who believe that evolution is running backward. The scientists live in the ruins of an old hotel, researching a population of Undowny Bufflehead ducks. Most people think The Reversalists are crazy, but when Nolan and Elsa travel to Leap’s to pack up their father’s belongings, they find the Reversalists’ beliefs have more to do with their own despair about the state of the planet’s health, contemporary culture, and the millennial generation than they do with anything scientific. As they search for the mysterious “Paradise Duck” their father referred to as proof his unpopular theories, Nolan and Elsa begin to suspect Dr. Grey has been murdered. I am interested in the use of innovative structures, and this novel unfolds along two alternating timelines, one forward-moving over the course of a week, and the other traveling backward, returning the two protagonists to their childhood, over the course of thirty years. === A Dissertation submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. === Summer Semester 2016. === June 8, 2016. === Includes bibliographical references. === Mark Winegardner, Professor Directing Dissertation; Lisa Ryoko Wakamiya, University Representative; Elizabeth Stuckey-French, Committee Member; Alisha Gaines, Committee Member.