Madame Bovary’s Ovaries : A Darwinian Look at Literature (2006) – David P. Barash [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

Adultery in literature is a theme I first explored after having seen the French film Jules et Jim (1962). It suddenly occurred to me that a number of classics in European literature deal with female infidelity. Among them are The Scarlet Letter, Madame Bovary, Anna Karenina and Ulysses (come to think of it, these were all written by male authors impersonating as it were, female protagonists). While searching for these terms I came across a review of Madame Bovary’s Ovaries : A Darwinian Look at Literature (2006) which deals with the representation of human nature in literature. Having a perennial interest in thematic literary criticism, would Ovaries provide useful pointers? I’ve been combing the web on the subject, but haven’t found anyhing yet. Has someone published a taxonomy of human nature as it is presented in narratology? A list which includes love stories, adventure stories, … etc with their number of variations? Maybe some of the poststructuralists?

Would works such as Jean-Pierre Richard’s Littérature et Sensation (1954) Horst Daemmrich’s Themes and Motifs in Western Literature be an answer to my question?