mate preferences of a popular cockroach: a biocultural analysis of the iranian folktale khâle suske

In the past few decades, scientific findings of evolutionary biology and evolutionary psychology have presented an approximate model of human nature that considers the deep history of our species and its implications for modern man. scholars in several disciplines in social sciences and humanities, including, but not limited to, anthropology, sociology, law, philosophy, history, arts, and literature, have begun to adopt this evolutionarily informed model of human nature in their studies. in literature, this evolutionary approach is commonly referred to as “literary darwinism” or “evolutionary criticism”, and as opposed to the solely cultural paradigms that have dominated academic literary studies over the last forty years, it offers a biocultural perspective for studying the imaginative works of literature. this paper first aims to review some of the existing scholarships in the field of literary darwinism to provide scientifically grounded answers to such questions as “why do we tell stories?”, “what functions do stories serve?”, and “how do storytellers manage to engage our attention for prolonged periods?” drawing on some of the mate preference findings of modern evolutionary psychology, it then attempts to provide a biocultural analysis of the popular iranian folktale khâle suske to illuminate why this particular tale appeals to such a wide variety of audiences and has been successful in engaging the attention of a nation over several generations.