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 Images of the Modern Woman in Asia by Stella Pratt-Smith
Cover of the book Change Leadership by Stella Pratt-Smith
Cover of the book Method In Madness by Stella Pratt-Smith
Cover of the book The Elections in Israel 2013 by Stella Pratt-Smith
Cover of the book Clinical Counselling in Context by Stella Pratt-Smith
Cover of the book Unlocking Learning and Teaching with ICT by Stella Pratt-Smith
Cover of the book Rethinking Job Security by Stella Pratt-Smith
Cover of the book China's Foreign Trade Policy by Stella Pratt-Smith
Cover of the book Optimize English Legal System by Stella Pratt-Smith
Cover of the book Individual Education Plans (IEPs) by Stella Pratt-Smith
Cover of the book The European Social Model and Transitional Labour Markets by Stella Pratt-Smith
Cover of the book Combatting the Causes of Inequality Affecting Young People Across Europe by Stella Pratt-Smith
Cover of the book The Matter of Images by Stella Pratt-Smith
Cover of the book The Politics of the Past by Stella Pratt-Smith
Cover of the book The Routledge Handbook of Attachment: Implications and Interventions 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