Transformations of Electricity in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Science

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, Gothic & Romantic
Cover of the book Transformations of Electricity in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Science by Stella Pratt-Smith, Taylor and Francis
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Stella Pratt-Smith ISBN: 9781317007807
Publisher: Taylor and Francis Publication: May 15, 2017
Imprint: Routledge Language: English
Author: Stella Pratt-Smith
ISBN: 9781317007807
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Publication: May 15, 2017
Imprint: Routledge
Language: English

Throughout the nineteenth century, practitioners of science, writers of fiction and journalists wrote about electricity in ways that defied epistemological and disciplinary boundaries. Revealing electricity as a site for intense and imaginative Victorian speculation, Stella Pratt-Smith traces the synthesis of nineteenth-century electricity made possible by the powerful combination of science, literature and the popular imagination. With electricity resisting clear description, even by those such as Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell who knew it best, Pratt-Smith argues that electricity was both metaphorically suggestive and open to imaginative speculation. Her book engages with Victorian scientific texts, popular and specialist periodicals and the work of leading midcentury novelists, including Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, William Makepeace Thackeray and Wilkie Collins. Examining the work of William Harrison Ainsworth and Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Pratt-Smith explores how Victorian novelists attributed magical qualities to electricity, imbuing it with both the romance of the past and the thrill of the future. She concludes with a case study of Benjamin Lumley’s Another World, which presents an enticing fantasy of electricity’s potential based on contemporary developments. Ultimately, her book contends that writing and reading about electricity appropriated and expanded its imaginative scope, transformed its factual origins and applications and contravened the bounds of literary genres and disciplinary constraints.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Throughout the nineteenth century, practitioners of science, writers of fiction and journalists wrote about electricity in ways that defied epistemological and disciplinary boundaries. Revealing electricity as a site for intense and imaginative Victorian speculation, Stella Pratt-Smith traces the synthesis of nineteenth-century electricity made possible by the powerful combination of science, literature and the popular imagination. With electricity resisting clear description, even by those such as Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell who knew it best, Pratt-Smith argues that electricity was both metaphorically suggestive and open to imaginative speculation. Her book engages with Victorian scientific texts, popular and specialist periodicals and the work of leading midcentury novelists, including Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, William Makepeace Thackeray and Wilkie Collins. Examining the work of William Harrison Ainsworth and Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Pratt-Smith explores how Victorian novelists attributed magical qualities to electricity, imbuing it with both the romance of the past and the thrill of the future. She concludes with a case study of Benjamin Lumley’s Another World, which presents an enticing fantasy of electricity’s potential based on contemporary developments. Ultimately, her book contends that writing and reading about electricity appropriated and expanded its imaginative scope, transformed its factual origins and applications and contravened the bounds of literary genres and disciplinary constraints.

More books from Taylor and Francis

Cover of the book Sharing Lives by Stella Pratt-Smith
Cover of the book Rethinking Strategy for Creative Industries by Stella Pratt-Smith
Cover of the book Perversion and Modern Japan by Stella Pratt-Smith
Cover of the book The College Classroom Assessment Compendium by Stella Pratt-Smith
Cover of the book Poverty, Progress and Development by Stella Pratt-Smith
Cover of the book The Therapeutic Relationship in Systemic Therapy by Stella Pratt-Smith
Cover of the book Shakespeare, Aphra Behn and the Canon by Stella Pratt-Smith
Cover of the book Forbidden Narratives by Stella Pratt-Smith
Cover of the book Transgender Identities (Open Access) by Stella Pratt-Smith
Cover of the book Religion and Human Security in Africa by Stella Pratt-Smith
Cover of the book The Canterbury Tales by Stella Pratt-Smith
Cover of the book Stress and the Brain by Stella Pratt-Smith
Cover of the book (Un) Civil Society and Political Change in Indonesia by Stella Pratt-Smith
Cover of the book Whales and Elephants in International Conservation Law and Politics by Stella Pratt-Smith
Cover of the book Iraq in the Twenty-First Century by Stella Pratt-Smith
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy