Ward, Megan (Author)
Configurations: A Journal of Literature, Science, and Technology
Volume: 20, no. 3
Issue: 3
Pages: 279-297
This essay argues that Victorian realism pre-imagines the conditions of early artificial intelligence by reading Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford (1853) alongside key cybernetic texts. In doing so, it claims that Victorian realism influences twentieth-century definitions of what it means to be human---definitions that have sparked contemporary debate about information and embodiment. By examining realism's representation practices, information practices can be better understood, not just in the twenty-first century, but as part of an ongoing debate.
...MoreDescription On an 1853 work by Elizabeth Gaskell.
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