Vision, Science and Literature, 1870-1920: Ocular Horizons

by Martin Willis

Overview

Winner of the British Society for Literature and Science Annual Prize, 2011 Winner of the Cultural Studies in English Prize, 2012 This book explores the role of vision and the culture of observation in Victorian and modernist ways of seeing. Willis charts the characterization of vision through four organizing principles—small, large, past and future—to survey Victorian conceptions of what vision was. He then explores how this Victorian vision influenced twentieth-century ways of seeing, when anxieties over visual "truth" became entwined with modernist rejections of objectivity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822981909
Publisher:	University of Pittsburgh Press
Publication date:	11/15/2011
Series:	Sci & Culture in the Nineteenth Century
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Martin Willis is professor of English literature at Cardiff University.

Table of Contents

Cover Half Title Title Copyright Contents Dedication Acknowledgements List of Figures Introduction: Ocular Horizons: Vision, Science and Literature 1. Microscopy and Disease: Science, Imagination and the Phantasmagoria 2. Microscopy and Disease: Place and Identity in Laboratory Science and Fiction 3. Optical Shattering: Percival Lowell, Mars and Authorities of Vision 4. Lowell's Minimum Visible: Wonder, Imagination and Popular Science 5. Looking as Tourists and Scientists: Amelia Edwards, Flinders Petrie and the Archaeology of the Egypt Exploration Fund 6. Egyptian Archaeology and Fiction: The Artefact as Thing 7. Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini: Optics, Ophthalmology and Magical Performance 8. Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini: Sensation, Spectacle and Spiritualism Afterword Notes Works Cited Index

Editorial Reviews

"Provides a fresh account of modern visualities in the overlap between scientific and literary cultures ... the book abounds with incisive readings and innovative conjunctions."
—Victorian Studies



"A highly original work and a landmark study whose impact is likely to be long lasting."
—European Society for the Study of English


"The history and philosophy of science merge seamlessly with literary studies in this intelligently crafted study of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century vision. By comparing literary and scientific narratives of visual technologies, Willis uncovers cultural assumptions about the way knowledge works. He stands out as an interdisciplinary scholar who analyzes literature as a source as well as a recipient of learning."
—Laura Otis, Emory University


"In explaining the role played by literary narratives in the history of science, and specifically in the visual culture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Willis shows both scientists and novelists at their most human, both driven by wonder and rigor, method and imagination."
—Review 19


"The interdisciplinary study of science and science fiction would do well to pursue the combination of archival research with engagement in current debates on the history of scientific culture that Willis exemplifies."
—Science Fiction Studies

From the Publisher