Monstrous Anatomies: Literary And Scientific Imagination In Britain And Germany During The Long Nineteenth Century (interfacing Science, Literature, And The Humanities / Acume 2)

1O nthe monster as anatural and philosophical 'error' that had adecisive influence in revolutionaryd ebates on political identity and national historyd uring the Enlightenment, see DavidW illiam Bates, EnlightenmentA berrations: Errora nd Revolutioni nF rance (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002). On theE nlightenment, its historical developmenta nd its legacy in the following centuries, see Vincenzo Ferrone, The Enlightenment:History of an Idea (Princeton:Princeton University Press, 2015). 2A sitisdemonstrated, with reference to the influence of alchemical sources on literature,in EvaH orn,' Abwege der Forschung.Z ur literarischen Archäologied er wissenschaftlichen Neugierde (Frankenstein, Faust, Moreau)', in Literatur als Philosophie -P hilosophie als Literatur,hrsg.von EvaHorn,Bettine Menkeund Christoph Menke(München:Fink, 2006), pp. 153-171. On Paracelsus' influence on European culture and science, see Die Alchemie in der europäischen Kultur-und Wissenschaftsgeschichte,hrsg.von Christoph Meinel (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Ve rlag,1986), and on the two sides of his thought, i. e. speculative and theological as well as medical and scientific, see AndrewW eeks, Paracelsus. SpeculativeTheory and the Crisis of the Early Reformation (Albany: StateU niversityofN ew Yo rk Press, 1997) and Charles We bster, Paracelsus. Medicine, Magic andMission at the End of Time (New Haven: Ya le University Press, 2008). becomei ncreasingly more fascinating than the magical and the mystical intended as aspects coming from some kind of 'other world'. 3 ## MonstrousAnatomies in German Culture The fascination with the monstrous demonstrated by the investigations of natural philosophers found in the German cultureo ft he 1770s ap eculiar approach in Johann Caspar Lavater's pathognomical and physiognomical studies on physical 'diversity', published in his well-known Vo nd er Physiognomik ('Physiognomy', 1772) and Physiognomische Fragmente zur Beförderung der Menschenkenntnis und Menschenliebe ('Physiognomic Fragments for the Purpose of Promoting the Knowledge and Love of Mankind', 1775-1778) rapidly translated into the major European languages. 4 Literaryd escriptions of monstrous bodies in the last decades of the eighteenth centuryw ere mostly influenced by Lavater's analysis, whose final goal was to trace and describet he physiognomyoft he genius and of the criminal as well as the physiognomyof Jesus. While it was scientifically impossible to delineate the latter,t he former were sketched out by Lavater,who would become influential for later theories of degeneration, and in particular for Lombroso's criminological studies. 5 This was also the time when the rays of light of the Enlightenmentbegan to be obscured in Germanybyt he rising irrationalityofSturmund Drang that -t o refer to Tzvetan To dorov's analysis of the 'fantastic' in literature -e ventually turned into the poetics of the 'marvelous' developed by the Frühromantiker in Jena, of the 'fantastic-marvelous' in the Romanticc ircle of Heidelberg and, finally,ofthe 'fantastic-uncanny' during the late Romanticism of Berlin. 6 Such authors as Georg Christoph Lichtenberg -a na dversaryo fL avater's "physiognomical frenzy" -7 and Johann Wo lfgang vonG oethe were actually funda- Main description: 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 eighteenth 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.; Description for press or other media: The book explores the significance and dissemination of ›monstrous anatomies‹ in British and German culture in the late Enlightenment, during the Romantic and the Victorian Age.; Promotional text: It explores it by investigating how and why scientific and literary representations and descriptions of abnormal bodies were proposed. 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.; Biographical note: Prof. Dr. Raul Calzoni lehrt Neuere Deutsche Literatur sowie Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft an der Universität Bergamo.; Biographical note: Raul Calzoni is Associate Professor of German Studies at the University of Bergamo. Greta Perletti holds a PhD in Textual Analysis and Theory at the University of Bergamo The body of the monster between science and literature : an introduction Deformity and monstrosity : Jean Paul between embryogenesis and the concept of life / Elisa Leonzio Liminal figurations of the vampire in the German Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang and Romanticism / Raul Calzoni A "mosaic work" : the poison mixer's body between monstrosity and deception / Lorella Bosco Angels and monsters : on Stifter's Turmalin / Micaela Latini Creating life artificially : Robert Hamerling's Homunculus / Anna Cappellotto The monstrous gaze : exotic/subaltern/female. Omai in eighteenth-century Fin de Siecle London / Francesca Di Blasio Has man "paid too dear a price for his empire"? : Monsters in Romantic-era literature / Sharon Ruston Displaying the anomalous body : Wilkie Collins's Freak show / Flora de Giovanni Dead pro tem : suspended animation and the monstrosity of death-counterfeits / Alessandra Violi Nineteenth-century London as monstrous body / Laura Di Michele "The thing". Unidentified monstrous objects in Victorian fiction / Maria Teresa Chialant The dis-appearance of the body in an age of science : H.G. Wells's Invisible man / Francesca Guidotti Unthinkable hybrids : the somatic unconscious of the transplanted body / Sara Damiani Taming gender : how hermaphroditism became pseudo and gender fled the body / Daniela Crocetti The survival of ancient monsters : Freud and Baubo / Michele Cometa. The book explores the significance and dissemination of {u2018}monstrous anatomies{u2019} 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. -- From publisher's website