Mesmerists, Monsters, and Machines: Science Fiction and the Cultures of Science in the Nineteenth CenturyKent State University Press, 2006 - 272 pages A cultural history of science and science fiction Using key canonical science fiction narratives, Mesmerists, Monsters, and Machines examines the intersection of the literary and scientific cultures of the nineteenth century. In this original and refreshing approach to the study of early science fiction, author Martin Willis maintains that science fiction was just as important in defining the culture of the nineteenth century as other critics maintain it was in shaping the twentieth century. Mesmerists, Monsters, and Machines interrogates the cultural implications of scientific development as articulated, challenged, and reformulated by science fiction. Each chapter demonstrates that both science and fiction were vital parts of a culture of imaginative and empirical practices that were continually reacting to, arguing with, and influencing one another throughout the nineteenth century. In an engrossing narrative that cites classic science fiction texts, Willis establishes a timeline for the reader so that the cultural significance of science fiction is understood and its complexity and relevance to the nineteenth century is demonstrated. Those interested in nineteenth-century history and literature, cultural studies, the history of science, and science fiction will welcome this addition to the scholarship. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 73
... Investigations on Dry Land 133 6 Villiers de L'Isle - Adam's Invention of Psychical Research 169 7 H. G. Wells in the Laboratory 201 8 Conclusion : The Progress of Literature and Science ; or , A Refrain on Interdisciplinarity 235 Notes ...
... investigations of their use of science than have Jules Verne and H. G. Wells . Interdisciplinary readings of nineteenth - century literary texts and their scientific contexts have become the forte of the Victorian scholar rather than of ...
... investigations of nineteenth - century science have challenged this progressivist view , arguing that there is no simple replacement of the old with the new but rather a continual struggle for the central ground from which power could ...
... investigation of phenomena beyond their immediate area of expertise . University of London clinician John Elliotson , for example , led several investigations into mesmerism while playing a central role in hospital doctoring.2 Similarly ...
... investigation gave the mainstream sciences significant influence in deciding the direction of late - nineteenth - century society . Government sponsorship of important laboratories or scientific projects , such as the British Institute ...
Contents
1 | |
28 | |
Mary Shelleys Electric Imagination | 63 |
The Human Experiments of Edgar Allan Poe | 94 |
Vernes DeepSea Investigations on Dry Land | 133 |
Villiers de LIsleAdams Invention of Psychical Research | 169 |
H G Wells in the Laboratory | 201 |
Conclusion The Progress of Literature and Science or A Refrain on Interdisciplinarity | 235 |
Notes | 241 |
Bibliography | 254 |
Index | 265 |