Monstrous Anatomies: Literary and Scientific Imagination in Britain and Germany during the Long Nineteenth Century

by Raul Calzoni (Editor), Greta Perletti (Editor)

Overview

The book explores the significance and dissemination of 'monstrous anatomies' in British and German culture by investigating how and why scientific and literary representations and descriptions of abnormal bodies were proposed in the late Enlightenment, during the Romantic and the Victorian Age. Since the investigations of late 18th-Century natural sciences, the fascination with monstrous anatomies has proved crucial to the study of human physiology and pathology. Featuring essays by a number of scholars focusing on a wide range of literary texts from the long nineteenth century and foregrounding the most important monstrous anatomies of the time, this book intends to offer a significant contribution to the study of the representations of the abnormal body in modern culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783847104698
Publisher:	V&R Academic
Publication date:	09/16/2015
Series:	Interfacing Science, Literature, and the Humanities , #10
Pages:	316
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Raul Calzoni is Associate Professor of German Studies at the University of Bergamo. Greta Perletti holds a Ph D in Textual Analysis and Theory at the University of Bergamo.

Table of Contents

The Body of the Monster between Science and Literature: An Introduction 7

Deformity and Monstrosity: Jean Paul between Embryogenesis and the Concept of Life Elisa Leonzio 25

Liminal Figurations of the Vampire in the German Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang and Romanticism Raul Calzoni 41

A 'Mosaic Work': The Poison Mixer's Body between Monstrosity and Deception Lorella Bosco 61

Angels and Monsters: On Stifter's Turmalin Micaela Latini 81

Creating Life Artificially: Robert Hamerling's Homunculus Anna Cappellotto 95

The Monstrous Gaze: Exotic/Subaltern/Female. Omai in Eighteenth-Century Fin de Siècle London Francesca Di Blasio 121

Has Man "Paid Too Dear a Price for His Empire"? Monsters in Romantic-Era Literature Sharon Ruston 133

Displaying the Anomalous Body. Wilkie Collins's Freak Show Flora de Giovanni 149

Dead pro tern.: Suspended Animation and the Monstrosity of Death-Counterfeits Alessandra Violi 169

Nineteenth-Century London as Monstrous Body Laura Di Michele 193

'The Thing'. Unidentified Monstrous Objects in Victorian Fiction Maria Teresa Chialant 217

The Dis-Appearance of the Body in an Age of Science: H. G. Wells's Invisible Man Francesca Guidotti 235

Unthinkable Hybrids: The Somatic Unconscious of the Transplanted Body Sara Damiani 255

Taming Gender: How Hermaphroditism Became Pseudo and Gender Fled the Body Daniela Crocetti 273

The Survival of Ancient Monsters: Freud and Baubo Michele Cometa 297

The Authors 311