Thesis ID: CBB001562883

Testing Reality's Limits: “Mad” Scientists, Realism, and the Supernatural in Late Victorian Popular Fiction (2013)

unapi

Bankard, Jennifer Sopchockchai (Author)


Green, Laura M.
Northeastern University


Publication Date: 2013
Edition Details: Advisor: Green, Laura M.
Physical Details: 654 pp.
Language: English

In the late Victorian period, approaching the fin de siècle, popular fiction frequently featured what critics would now call mad scientists. These mad scientist characters served as a vehicle for Victorian authors to explore the epistemological relationship between humans and the material world, often highlighting the shortcomings of the human eye or subjective perception of reality. By tracing the scientific and supernatural discourses surrounding representations of scientists featured in works by H.G. Wells, Bram Stoker, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Arthur Conan Doyle, this revisionist literary history demonstrates that Victorian popular fiction and "classic realist" novels share a common interest in human perceptions and representations of a material reality. Arguing that the genre categories traditionally applied to these texts are permeable and unstable, Testing Reality's Limits continues work begun by scholars, such as George Levine, who redefined Victorian realism as a self-conscious experiment rather than a naively mimetic practice, and addresses literature not yet studied by such scholars. While the project is rooted in literary criticism and Victorian literature, it also engages with contemporary popular culture and cinema. Each chapter concludes with a detailed analysis of notable film and television adaptations of each novel discussed, to place Victorian realism in context. By incorporating an adaptation studies perspective, the research offers a better understanding of both Victorian and contemporary trends, viewing popular culture as a series of intertextual relationships and an evolving history rather than isolated cultural moments.

...More

Description Cited in ProQuest Diss. & Thes. . ProQuest Doc. ID 1346229750.


Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001562883/

Similar Citations

Book Kripal, Jeffrey J.; (2011)
Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal (/isis/citation/CBB001201217/)

Book Stiles, Anne; (2012)
Popular Fiction and Brain Science in the Late Nineteenth Century (/isis/citation/CBB001200911/)

Book Young, Francis; (2013)
English Catholics and the Supernatural, 1553--1829 (/isis/citation/CBB001201678/)

Book Lester D. Friedman; Allison B. Kavey; (2016)
Monstrous Progeny: A History of the Frankenstein Narratives (/isis/citation/CBB423366579/)

Book Bould, Mark; (2009)
The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction (/isis/citation/CBB001033218/)

Book Sherryl Vint; (2021)
Science Fiction (/isis/citation/CBB502690791/)

Chapter Waugh, Patricia; (2011)
Mind in Modern Fiction: Literary and Philosophical Perspectives after Darwin (/isis/citation/CBB001202033/)

Article Castagnaro, Mario; (2012)
Lunar Fancies and Earthly Truths: The Moon Hoax of 1835 and the Penny Press (/isis/citation/CBB001200842/)

Article Ward, Megan; (2013)
Our Posthuman Past: Victorian Realism, Cybernetics, and the Problem of Information (/isis/citation/CBB001253050/)

Article Clair, Justin St.; (2011)
Borrowed Time: Thomas Pynchon's Against the Day and the Victorian Fourth Dimension (/isis/citation/CBB001034748/)

Article Kreisel, Deanna K.; (2014)
The Discreet Charm of Abstraction: Hyperspace Worlds and Victorian Geometry (/isis/citation/CBB001550339/)

Book Dawson, Gowan; (2012)
Victorian Science and Literature (/isis/citation/CBB001251062/)

Book Williams, Rosalind H.; (2013)
The Triumph of Human Empire: Verne, Morris, and Stevenson at the End of the World (/isis/citation/CBB001451376/)

Article Helen Small; (2020)
Artificial Intelligence: George Eliot, Ernst Kapp, and the Projections of Character (/isis/citation/CBB851762854/)

Article Hunting, Penelope; (2012)
Charles Dickens (1812--70): “The longer I live the more I doubt the doctors” (/isis/citation/CBB001200788/)

Article Courtney, Stephen; Smith, Crosbie W.; (2013)
“Or Vast Fiery Cross, on the Banner of Morn”: Reading the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company's Shipwrecks (/isis/citation/CBB001421377/)

Article Stiles, Anne; (2009)
Literature in Mind: H. G. Wells and the Evolution of the Mad Scientist (/isis/citation/CBB001030597/)

Authors & Contributors
Stiles, Anne
Friedman, Lester D.
Miller, John
Kreisel, Deanna K.
Courtney, Stephen
Young, Francis
Concepts
Science and literature
Science fiction
Popular culture
Science and culture
Supernatural
Evolution
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
21st century
20th century, late
20th century, early
18th century
Places
Great Britain
United States
Polynesia
Jamaica (Caribbean)
South America
South Africa
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment