Darwin's Screens

‘Barbara Creed’s intriguing study offers more than new insights into the origins of the cinema. Even more ambitious, it offers an alternative history of Western film as seen through the lens of Darwinism.’—Professor Jonathan Smith, University of Michigan, author of Charles Darwin and Victorian Visual Culture





‘The central argument of Darwin’s Screens is delivered with a breadth and scope of vision that leaves the reader in little doubt that Creed’s study will have a significant impact on our understanding of contemporary cinema.’—Professor Tony Bennett, The Open University, author of The Birth of the Museum: History, Theory, Politics





‘What a wonderful book! Barbara Creed’s wide-ranging study soars—to take on the evolutionary implications of the movies, spanning classic horror, to science fiction, to film noir.’—Professor Barbara Maria Stafford, University of Chicago, author of Echo Objects: The Cognitive Work of Images





Darwin’s Screens addresses a major gap in film scholarship—the key influence of Charles Darwin’s theories on the history of the cinema. Much has been written on the effect of other great thinkers such as Freud and Marx but very little on the important role played by Darwinian ideas on the evolution of the newest art form of the twentieth century. Creed argues that Darwinian ideas influenced the evolution of early film genres such as horror, the detective film, science fiction, film noir and the musical. Her study draws on Darwin’s theories of sexual selection, deep time and transformation, and on emotions, death, and the meaning of human and animal in order to rethink some of the canonical arguments of film and cinema studies.