Human Tissue in the Realist Novel, 1850-1895
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Springer International Publishing AG
Published:21st Mar '23
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This Pivot engages with current debates about anthropocentrism and the Anthropocene to propose a reappraisal of the realist novel in the second half of the nineteenth century. Through three case studies, it argues for ‘human tissue’ as a conceptual tool for reading that brings together biology, literature and questions of layering. This new approach is shown to be especially salient to the Victorian period, when the application of ‘tissue’ to biology first emerges. The book is distinctive in bringing together theoretical concerns around realism and the Anthropocene – two major topics in literary criticism – and presenting a new methodology to approach this conjunction, demonstrated through original readings of Charles Kingsley, George Eliot, and Emile Zola and two English-language writers he influenced (George Moore and Vernon Lee).
“Adding to an expanding body of critical works in the Medical Humanities, Ben Moore’s Human Tissue in the Realist Novel, 1850-1895 … cleverly draws upon the Victorian notion of connectivity within biological and literary material. … what Moore’s work provides is, above and beyond, an examination of language that does much to remind us that the realist novel and scientific labels that we may assume to be definite forms have their own frailty and tendency to fragment.” (Sara Zadrozny, BAVS Newsletter, Vol. 24 (1), 2024)
“Human Tissue in the Realist Novel, 1850–1895 is a short study of the links between human tissue, human subjectivity, and forms of realism. … The result is an argument that often feels like it is reinventing the wheel, even while some theorical approaches, especially those relating to climate, feel innovative and inspiring.” (Andrew Mangham, English Studies, August 23, 2023)
ISBN: 9783031266393
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
100 pages
1st ed. 2023