Atavistic tendencies : the culture of science in American modernity / Dana Seitler.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Seitler, Dana.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Literature and science--United States--History--19th century.

Literature and science.

Literature and science--United States--History--20th century.

American literature--19th century--History and criticism.

American literature.

American literature--20th century--History and criticism.

Atavism--History--19th century.

Atavism.

Atavism--History--20th century.

Biology--United States--History--19th century.

Biology.

Biology--United States--History--20th century.

Eugenics in literature.

Human reproduction in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (326 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, c2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The post-Darwinian theory of atavism forecasted obstacles to human progress in the reappearance of throwback physical or cultural traits after several generations of absence. In this original and stimulating work, Dana Seitler explores the ways in which modernity itself is an atavism, shaping a historical and theoretical account of its dramatic rise and impact on Western culture and imagination. Examining late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century science, fiction, and photography, Seitler discovers how modern thought oriented itself around this paradigm of obsolescence and return-one that s

Contents:

Contents; Acknowledgments; Introduction: Down on All Fours; 1 Freud's Menagerie: Our Atavistic Sense of Self; 2 Late Modern Morphologies: Scientific Empiricism and Photographic Representation; 3 "Wolf-wolf!": Narrating the Science of Desire; 4 Atavistic Time: Tarzan, Dr. Fu Manchu, and the Serial Dime Novel; 5 Unnatural Selection: Mothers, Eugenic Feminism, and Regeneration Narratives; 6 An Atavistic Embrace: Ape, Gorilla, Wolf, Man; Coda: Being-Now, Being-Then; Notes; Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 243-283) and index.

ISBN:

0-8166-6642-3

OCLC:

318220370