Experimental life : vitalism in Romantic science and literature

Resource Information

The work Experimental life : vitalism in Romantic science and literature represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in University of Liverpool. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Experimental life : vitalism in Romantic science and literature

Title remainder

vitalism in Romantic science and literature

Statement of responsibility

Robert Mitchell

Creator

• Mitchell, Robert, 1969-
• Mitchell, Robert, 1969-

Author

• Mitchell, Robert, 1969-
• Mitchell, Robert, 1969-

Subject

• English literature
• English literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism
• Life
• Life
• Life in literature
• Literature
• Literature
• Literature and science
• 1800 - 1899
• Literature and science -- England -- History -- 19th century
• Romanticism
• Romanticism
• Romanticism -- England
• Vitalism
• Vitalism
• Vitalism in literature
• Literature and science
• England
• England
• English literature

Language

eng

Summary

Experimental Life establishes the multiple ways in which Romantic authors appropriated the notion of experimentation from the natural sciences. If the objective of the Romantic movement was nothing less than to redefine the meaning of life itself, what role did experiments play in this movement? While earlier scholarship has established both the importance of science generally and vitalism specifically, with regard to Romanticism no study has investigated what it meant for artists to experiment and how those experiments related to their interest in the concept of life. Experimental Life draws on approaches and ideas from contemporary science studies, proposing the concept of experimental vitalism to show both how Romantic authors appropriated the concept of experimentation from the sciences and the impact of their appropriation on post-Romantic concepts of literature and art. Robert Mitchell navigates complex conceptual arenas such as network theory, gift exchange, paranoia, and biomedia and introduces new concepts, such as cryptogamia, chylopoietic discourse, trance-plantation, and the poetics of suspension. As a result, Experimental Life is a wide-ranging summation and extension of the current state of literary studies, the history of science, cultural critique, and theory.--Back cover

Cataloging source

DLC

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography