Involves Darwinian theory of evolution into the application in literature- involving concepts such as the struggle for existence and survival of the fittest. The movement originated in the 1990s when writers needed a refreshing thought and to incorporate biology into literature.
‌It represents an emerging tendency of neo-Darwinian thought in intellectual disciplines
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‌Modern Darwinian literary studies arose in part as a result of its proponents' disappointment with the poststructuralist and postmodernist philosophies that had come to dominate literary study during the 1970s and 1980s. In particular, the Darwinists took issue with the statement that discourse constructs reality. The Darwinists argue that biologically grounded attitudes constrain and inform discourse. 
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‌Many literary Darwinists aim not just at creating another "approach" or "movement" in literary theory; they aim at fundamentally altering the paradigm within which literary study is now administered. They want to establish a new alignment among the disciplines and eventually encompass all other possible approaches to literary study. 
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‌Literary Darwinism -- like many offshoots of Darwinism -- tends to find favour with those looking for universal explanations. Like Freudianism and Marxism, it has large-scale ambitions: to explain not just the workings of a particular text or author but texts and authors over time and across cultures as well.