Book ID: CBB052084519

Life Embodied: The Promise of Vital Force in Spanish Modernity (2018)

unapi

The concept of vital force – the immanent energy that promotes the processes of life in the body and in nature – has proved a source of endless fascination and controversy. Indeed, the question of what vitalizes the body has haunted humanity since antiquity, and became even more pressing during the Scientific Revolution and beyond. Examining the complexities and theories about vital force in Spanish modernity, Nicolás Fernández-Medina's Life Embodied offers a novel and provocative assessment of the question of bodily life in Spain. Starting with Juan de Cabriada's landmark Carta filosófica, médico-chymica of 1687 and ending with Ramón Gómez de la Serna's avant-gardism of the 1910s, Fernández-Medina incorporates discussions of anatomy, philosophy, science, critical theory, history of medicine, and literary studies to argue that concepts of vital force served as powerful vehicles to interrogate the possibilities and limits of corporeality. Paying close attention to how the body's capabilities were conceived and strategically woven into critiques of modernity, Fernández-Medina engages the work of Miguel Boix y Moliner, Martín Martínez, Diego de Torres Villarroel, Sebastián Guerrero Herreros, Ignacio María Ruiz de Luzuriaga, Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, Pedro Mata y Fontanet, Ángela Grassi, Julián Sanz del Río, Miguel de Unamuno, and Pío Baroja, among others. Drawing on extensive research and analysis, Life Embodied breaks new ground as the first book to address the question of vital force in Spanish modernity.

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Reviewed By

Review Richard Cleminson (2020) Review of "Life Embodied: The Promise of Vital Force in Spanish Modernity". Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (pp. 344-346). unapi

Review Andrew Keitt (2019) Review of "Life Embodied: The Promise of Vital Force in Spanish Modernity". Bulletin of the History of Medicine (pp. 613-614). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB052084519/

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Authors & Contributors
Hye-sim Sŏl
Meeker, Natania
Barclay, Katie
Schaefer, Claudia
Nicoli, Elena
Donohue, Christopher R.
Concepts
Modernity
Development; growth; life; death
Vitalism
Human body
Mechanism; mechanical philosophy
Biology
Time Periods
Modern
Early modern
19th century
18th century
Renaissance
21st century
Places
Spain
England
Americas
Germany
China
India
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