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A matter of perspective: multiple readings of George Gaylord Simpson's Tempo and mode in evolution

2003; Edinburgh University Press; Volume: 30; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3366/anh.2003.30.1.28

1755-6260

Joe Cain,

Historical and Literary Studies

The paper examines book reviews produced for George Gaylord Simpson's (1944) Tempo and mode in evolution. This book was one of a series of key American publications in the synthesis period (1930s–1940s) of evolutionary studies. When these reviews are organised by their authors' specialities, patterns in emphasis arise. The patterns raise important questions about reader perspective and the various ways meaning was imposed onto this book. The analytical concept of polyvalence – the idea that within a community of readers, texts come to have multiple meanings and this pluralism leads to different notions of value – provides a useful tool for drawing implications about this case. In particular, an emphasis on polyvalence and multiple perspectives solves a stalemate between conflicting interpretations of the synthesis period. The reviews of Simpson's book show many perspectives were active in the period, yet the main historical interpretations of the period each build from only one of those multiple perspectives. As a result, each necessarily is incomplete. A more satisfactory understanding of the period will need to build on the concept of polyvalence.