Abstract
A theory of cultural evolution needs not only to be internally coherent and logically consistent, but it must also be able to account for the details of specific cultural productions or phenomena. Any sufficiently complex theory runs the risk of following its internal logic to conclusions that seem reasonable in light of the theory but, due to unconsidered factors, are not consistent with observed reality. So it is important to check the tendency within literary and cultural studies toward theoretical over-development unconstrained by empirical evidence. We will therefore in this chapter test the meme-based theory of tradition and influence by seeing if it can shed light on some specific cultural productions: a group of Old English poems from the tenth-century Exeter Book. As the generic identification of and relationships between these poems has been problematic for more than a century, the ability of the meme-based theory to explain their similarities and differences is support for both the theory’s coherence and its utility.
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Notes
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Drout, M.D.C. (2013). Application of the Theory: Genre and Adaptive Radiation in Poems of the Exeter Book. In: Tradition and Influence in Anglo-Saxon Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137324603_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137324603_6
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