Popular fiction and brain science in the late nineteenth century / Anne Stiles.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stiles, Anne, 1975- author.

Series:

Cambridge studies in nineteenth-century literature and culture ; 78.

Cambridge studies in nineteenth-century literature and culture ; 78

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gothic fiction (Literary genre), English--History and criticism.

Gothic fiction (Literary genre), English.

Neurosciences and the arts.

Brain--Research--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Brain.

Gothic revival (Literature)--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Gothic revival (Literature).

Literature and science--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Literature and science.

Literature and medicine--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Literature and medicine.

Neurosciences--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Neurosciences.

Mind and body in literature.

Physiology in literature.

English fiction--19th century--History and criticism.

English fiction.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 255 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Other Title:

Popular Fiction & Brain Science in the Late Nineteenth Century

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the 1860s and 1870s, leading neurologists used animal experimentation to establish that discrete sections of the brain regulate specific mental and physical functions. These discoveries had immediate medical benefits: David Ferrier's detailed cortical maps, for example, saved lives by helping surgeons locate brain tumors and haemorrhages without first opening up the skull. These experiments both incited controversy and stimulated creative thought, because they challenged the possibility of an extra-corporeal soul. This book examines the cultural impact of neurological experiments on late-Victorian Gothic romances by Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, H. G. Wells and others. Novels like Dracula and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde expressed the deep-seated fears and visionary possibilities suggested by cerebral localization research, and offered a corrective to the linearity and objectivity of late Victorian neurology.

Contents:

Cerebral localization and the late Victorian Gothic romance

Robert Louis Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde and the double brain

Bram Stoker's Dracula and cerebral automatism

Photographic memory in the works of Grant Allen

H.G. Wells and the evolution of the mad scientist

Marie Corelli and the neuron.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-139-20976-0

1-107-22842-5

1-280-48512-4

9786613580108

1-139-22265-1

1-139-21785-2

1-139-22436-0

1-139-21476-4

1-139-22093-4

0-511-84446-8

OCLC:

775869917