The cultural politics of blood, 1500-1900 : [papers presented at the conference "Bloodwork: The politics of the Body, 1500-1900", 6-7 May 2011 at the University of Maryland

The essays of this collection explore how ideas about 'blood' in science and literature have supported, at various points in history and in various places in the circum-Atlantic world, fantasies of human embodiment and human difference that serve to naturalize existing hierarchies.Metamateriality and Blood Purity in Cervantes’s Alcaná de ToledoThe Blood of Others: Breeding Plants, Animals, and White People in the Spanish Atlantic“Rude Uncivill Blood”: The Pastoral Challenge to Hereditary Race in Fletcher and MiltonAfrican Blood, Colonial Money, and Respectable Mulatto Heiresses Reforming Eighteenth-Century England“His blood be on us and on our children”: Medieval Theology and the Demise of Jewish Somatic Inferiority in Early Modern EnglandSor Juana’s Appetite: Body, Mind, and Vitality in “First Dream”Blood and Character in Early African American LiteratureFlowing or Pumping? The Blood of the Body Politic in Burton, Harvey, and HobbesLinnaeus and the Four Corners of the World“Who Got Bloody?”: The Cultural Meanings of Blood during the Civil War and ReconstructionColonial Transfusions: Cuban Bodies and Spanish Loyalty in the Nineteenth CenturyRobert Appelbaum, Uppsala University, Sweden Rachel Burk, the University of Pennsylvania, USA Lyndon J. Dominique, Lehigh University, USA Jim Downs, Connecticut College, USA Jean E. Feerick, John Carroll University, USA Ruth Hill, Vanderbilt University, USA M. Lindsay Kaplan, Georgetown University, USA Anna More, University of Brasília Staffan Müller-Wille, University of Exeter, UK David Sartorius, University of Maryland, USA Hannah Spahn, University of Potsdam, Germany Front Matter....Pages i-xvi Introduction....Pages 1-22 Front Matter....Pages 23-23 Metamateriality and Blood Purity in Cervantes’s Alcaná de Toledo....Pages 25-44 The Blood of Others: Breeding Plants, Animals, and White People in the Spanish Atlantic....Pages 45-64 “Rude Uncivill Blood”: The Pastoral Challenge to Hereditary Race in Fletcher and Milton....Pages 65-83 African Blood, Colonial Money, and Respectable Mulatto Heiresses Reforming Eighteenth-Century England....Pages 84-104 Front Matter....Pages 105-105 “His blood be on us and on our children”: Medieval Theology and the Demise of Jewish Somatic Inferiority in Early Modern England....Pages 107-126 Sor Juana’s Appetite: Body, Mind, and Vitality in “First Dream”....Pages 127-145 Blood and Character in Early African American Literature....Pages 146-167 Front Matter....Pages 169-169 Flowing or Pumping? The Blood of the Body Politic in Burton, Harvey, and Hobbes....Pages 171-190 Linnaeus and the Four Corners of the World....Pages 191-209 “Who Got Bloody?”: The Cultural Meanings of Blood during the Civil War and Reconstruction....Pages 210-228 Colonial Transfusions: Cuban Bodies and Spanish Loyalty in the Nineteenth Century....Pages 229-250 Back Matter....Pages 251-274 The essays collected here consider how conceptions of blood permeate discourses of human difference from 1500 to 1900 in England and continental Spain and in the Anglo- and Ibero-Americas. The authors explore how ideas about blood in science and literature have supported, at various points in history, fantasies of human embodiment and difference that serve to naturalize social hierarchies already in place. Situating the complex relationship between modern and pre-modern conceptions of race at the junction of early modern medicine, heredity, religion, and nation, The Cultural Politics of Blood challenges established accounts of the genealogy of modern racism 5 "His blood be on us and on our children": Medieval Theology and the Demise of Jewish Somatic Inferiority in Early Modern England6 Sor Juana's Appetite: Body, Mind, and Vitality in "First Dream"; 7 Blood and Character in Early African American Literature; Part III: Medicalizing the Political Body; 8 Flowing or Pumping? The Blood of the Body Politic in Burton, Harvey, and Hobbes; 9 Linnaeus and the Four Corners of the World; 10 "Who Got Bloody?": The Cultural Meanings of Blood during the Civil War and Reconstruction Cover; Contents; List of Illustrations; Foreword; Acknowledgments; Notes on Contributors; Introduction; Part I: Race and Stock; 1 Metamateriality and Blood Purity in Cervantes's Alcaná de Toledo; 2 The Blood of Others: Breeding Plants, Animals, and White People in the Spanish Atlantic; 3 "Rude Uncivill Blood": The Pastoral Challenge to Hereditary Race in Fletcher and Milton; 4 African Blood, Colonial Money, and Respectable Mulatto Heiresses Reforming Eighteenth-Century England; Part II: Moral Constitution The Essays Of This Collection Explore How Ideas About 'blood' In Science And Literature Have Supported, At Various Points In History And In Various Places In The Circum-atlantic World, Fantasies Of Human Embodiment And Human Difference That Serve To Naturalize Existing Hierarchies. Edited By Kimberly Anne Coles, Ralph Bauer, Zita Nunes, Carla L. Peterson. 11 Colonial Transfusions: Cuban Bodies and Spanish Loyalty in the Nineteenth CenturyFurther Reading; Index