Science and Eccentricity
Collecting, Writing and Performing Science for Early Nineteenth-Century Audiences
Published on 12. September 2016
265 pages
978-0-8229-8181-7 (ISBN)
Description
The concept of eccentricity was central to how people in the nineteenth century understood their world. This monograph is the first scholarly history of eccentricity. Carroll explores how discourses of eccentricity were established to make sense of individuals who did not seem to fit within an increasingly organized social and economic order. She focuses on the self-taught natural philosopher William Martin, the fossilist Thomas Hawkins and the taxidermist Charles Waterton.
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Victoria Carroll
Science and Eccentricity
Collecting, Writing and Performing Science for Early Nineteenth-Century Audiences
Book
07/2008
Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Ltd
€141.36
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Content
- Cover
- Half Title
- Title
- Copyright
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Illustrations
- Introduction
- 1. Defining Eccentricity in Early Nineteenth-Century Britain
- Eccentricity, Prophecy and the 'Spirit of the Age'
- Eccentric Biography: The Emergence of a Genre
- Challenging Boundaries
- Eccentricity, Gender and 'Separate Spheres'
- Lawlessness, Genius and the Cultivation of Eccentricity
- 2. Performers, Audiences and Eccentric Identities: William Martin and the World turned Upside Down
- William Martin, Natural Philosopher, Prophet and Poet
- The Lecturer and his Audiences
- The Martinian Philosophy in Context: Anti-Newtonian and Millenarian Traditions
- Science, Carnival and the Politics of Eccentricity
- 3. 'Beyond the Pale of Ordinary Criticism': Literary Eccentricity and the Fossil Books of Thomas Hawkins
- Collecting Sea-Dragons
- Anatomy and Genre
- Mixing Genres
- Genesis, Geology and the Perils of 'Enthusiasm'
- 4. Eccentricity on Display: Visiting Charles Waterton, Traveller, Naturalist and Celebrity
- Visiting Walton Hall: Expectations and Surprises
- Waterton's Taxidermy: Lifelike Wonders and Monstrous Hybrids
- Reading Stories, Reading Specimens
- The Eccentric Naturalist as Specimen and Celebrity
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
