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Author Curran, Andrew S

Title The anatomy of blackness : science & slavery in an age of Enlightenment / Andrew S. Curran
Published Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011

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Description 1 online resource (xiv, 310 pages) : illustrations
Series UPCC book collections on Project MUSE
Contents Introduction: Tissue samples in the land of conjecture -- Paper trails: writing the African, 1450-1750 -- Sameness and science, 1730-1750 -- The problem of difference: philosophes and the processing of African "ethnography, " 1750-1755 -- The natural history of slavery, 1770-1802 -- Coda: black Africans and the enlightenment legacy
Summary "This volume examines the Enlightenment-era textualization of the Black African in European thought. Andrew S. Curran rewrites the history of blackness by replicating the practices of eighteenth-century readers. Surveying French and European travelogues, natural histories, works of anatomy, pro- and anti-slavery tracts, philosophical treatises, and literary texts, Curran shows how naturalists and philosophes drew from travel literature to discuss the perceived problem of human blackness within the nascent human sciences, describes how a number of now-forgotten anatomists revolutionized the era's understanding of black Africans, and charts the shift of the slavery debate from the moral, mercantile, and theological realms toward that of the 'black body' itself. In tracing this evolution, he shows how blackness changed from a mere descriptor in earlier periods into a thing to be measured, dissected, handled, and often brutalized. Penetrating and comprehensive, The Anatomy of Blackness shows that, far from being a monolithic idea, eighteenth-century Africanist discourse emerged out of a vigorous, varied dialogue that involved missionaries, slavers, colonists, naturalists, anatomists, philosophers, and Africans themselves."--Publisher's description
Analysis Multi-User
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 275-293) and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject Black people in literature.
Travel writing -- History and criticism
Black people -- Race identity
French literature -- 19th century -- History
French literature -- 18th century -- History
LITERARY CRITICISM -- European -- French.
Black people in literature
Black people -- Race identity
French literature
Literature
Travel writing
Französisch
Literatur
Schwarzenbild
Black people -- Africa -- Perception.
Black people in literature -- 18th century.
Black people in philosophy -- 18th century.
Black people in science -- 18th century.
Slavery -- Africa.
Upplysningen.
Svarta i litteraturen.
Afrikaner i literaturen.
Slaveri.
Reseskildringar -- historia.
Fransk litteratur -- historia.
SUBJECT Africa -- In literature
Subject Africa
Frankreich
Frankreich.
Afrika.
Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc.
History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2010050254
ISBN 9781421402307
1421402300