Title Experimental life : vitalism in Romantic science and literature / Robert Mitchell

Published Baltimore : The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013

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Description 1 online resource Contents Introduction : three eras of experimental vitalism -- Romanticism, art, and experiments -- Suspended animation and the poetics of trance -- Life, orientation, and abandoned experiments -- Nausea, digestion, and the collapsurgence of system -- The media of life -- Cryptogamia -- Conclusion: biopolitics and experimental vitalism Summary If the objective of the Romantic movement was nothing less than to redefine the meaning of life itself, what role did experiments play in this movement? While earlier scholarship has established both the importance of science generally and vitalism specifically, with regard to Romanticism no prior study has investigated what it meant for artists to experiment - and how those experiments related to their interest in the concept of life. This study draws on approaches and ideas from contemporary science studies, proposing the concept of experimental vitalism to show both how Romantic authors appropriated the concept of experimentation from the sciences and the impact of their appropriation on post-Romantic concepts of literature and art. The author navigates complex conceptual arenas such as network theory, gift exchange, paranoia, and biomedia and introduces new concepts, such as cryptogamia, chylopoietic discourse, trance-plantation, and the poetics of suspension. As a result, this book is a wide-ranging summation and extension of contemporary literary studies, the history of science, cultural critique, and theory Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes English Print version record Subject English literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism Literature and science -- England -- History -- 19th century Romanticism -- England Vitalism in literature. Life in literature. LITERARY CRITICISM -- European -- English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh. English literature Life in literature Literature and science Romanticism Vitalism in literature England Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc. History Form Electronic book ISBN 9781421410890 1421410893 1421410893

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