The Form of Becoming: Embryology and the Epistemology of Rhythm, 1760–1830 (Zone Books)

The Form Of Becoming Offers An Innovative Understanding Of The Emergence Around 1800 Of The Science Of Embryology And A New Notion Of Development, One Based On The Epistemology Of Rhythm. It Argues That Between 1760 And 1830, The Concept Of Rhythm Became Crucial To Many Fields Of Knowledge, Including The Study Of Life And Living Processes. The Book Juxtaposes The History Of Rhythm In Music Theory, Literary Theory, And Philosophy With The Concurrent Turn In Biology To Understanding The Living World In Terms Of Rhythmic Patterns, Rhythmic Movement, And Rhythmic Representations. Common To All These Fields Was Their View Of Rhythm As A Means Of Organizing Time — and Of Ordering The Development Of Organisms. Janina Wellmann, A Historian Of Science, Has Written The First Systematic Study Of Visualization In Embryology. Embryological Development Circa 1800 Was Imagined Through The Pictorial Technique Of The Series, Still Prevalent In The Field Today. Tracing The Origins Of The Developmental Series Back To Seventeenth-century Instructional Graphics For Military Maneuvers, Dance, And Craft Work, The Form Of Becoming Reveals The Constitutive Role Of Rhythm And Movement In The Visualization Of Developing Life.--publisher's Website. Introduction: The Form Of Becoming -- Part I: A New Epistemology Of Rhythm. 1. Literary Form ; 2. Epigenetic Music ; 3. Rhythmical Productivity In Schelling's Philosophy Of Nature And Art -- Part Ii: Biological Rhythm. 4. Forms Out Of Formlessness ; 5. Sense And Verse : Goethe's Metamorphosis Of Plants ; 6. The Rhythm Of The Living World : Physiology Circa 1800 -- Part Iii: Serial Iconography. 7. The Iconography Of Motion ; 8. Epigenetic Iconography ; 9. Folding Into Being : Christian Heinrich Pander ; 10. Karl Ernst Von Baer And The Choreography Of Development -- Conclusion. Janina Wellmann ; Translated By Kate Sturge. Originally Published As: Die Form Des Werdens (göttingen : Wallstein Verlag, ©2010). Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Acknowledgments 9 Introduction: The Form of Becoming 13 part i: a new epistemology of rhythm i Literary Form 37 Poetry as a Form of Thought: Klopstock 37 The Alternation of Tones: Hölderlin 40 The Prosody of Development: Karl Philipp Moritz 48 Being Is a Rhythmical Relation: Novalis 53 The Physiological Origins of Language: August Wilhelm Schlegel 56 ii Epigenetic Music 61 Musical Rhythm as a Physiological Principle 63 The Theory of Accents 69 The “Natural Inclination” to Rhythm 71 iii Rhythmical Productivity in Schelling’s Philosophy of Nature and Art 77 Absolute and Finite in the Play of Rhythm 79 The Rhythm of the Absolute 83 Necessary Succession 85 part 2: biological rhythm iv Forms Out of Formlessness 89 What Is Epigenesis? A Historiographical Problem 89 Repetition, Pulse, Spiral: Wolff ’s Theory of Epigenesis 96 Describing Constant Change 110 v Sense and Verse: Goethe’s Metamorphosis of Plants 111 Continual Transformation 113 The Alternation of Expansion and Contraction 115 “G oing Backward or Forward in the Selfsame Way” 117 A Brief Cultural History of Metamorphosis 120 Metamorphosis in Distichs 122 vi The Rhythm of the Living World: Physiology circa 1800 135 The Temper of the Life Force 135 Physiological Times 140 The Formations of Flow 144 part 3: serial iconography vii The Iconography of Motion 157 The Beginnings of Instructional Graphics 158 Military Drill 161 Pose and Series 163 The Law of Rhythm 176 Eighteenth-Century Drill 182 Vaulting, Dancing, Gymnastics: Beauty in Movement 190 Dance, Formation, Evolution: The Choreography of Motion 203 Handiwork 221 viii Epigenetic Iconography 231 Malpighi 233 The Image as an Aid to Seeing 235 Painted Tables 241 Soemmerring’s Icones embryonum humanorum 245 The Image as Argument 253 Outline and Series: Tredern and Herold 259 Döllinger’s Circle 267 ix Folding into Being: Christian Heinrich Pander 273 To Form Is to Fold 273 A New Observational Regime 279 “S o We Selected”: Constructing the Developmental Series 281 An “Assemblage of Embryos”: Pander’s Plates 284 x Karl Ernst von Baer and the Choreography of Development 301 Folding Layers into Tubes 302 From Fundamental Organs to Tissues 303 From Line to Surface 305 Rhythmical Choreography 308 From Word to Image 309 “T he Rhythm of Their Organization” 318 Conclusion 321 Notes 325 Credits 405 Index 411