Nineteenth Century Popular Fiction, Medicine and Anatomy

The Victorian Penny Blood and the 1832 Anatomy Act
1. Auflage 2019
ISBN: 978-3-030-10915-8
Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buch, Englisch, 253 Seiten, HC runder Rücken kaschiert, Format (B × H): 153 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 473 g

Reihe: Palgrave Studies in Literature, Science and Medicine

This book investigates the relationship between the fascinating and misunderstood penny blood, early Victorian popular fiction for the working class, and Victorian anatomy. In 1832, the controversial Anatomy Act sanctioned the use of the body of the pauper for teaching dissection to medical students, deeply affecting the Victorian poor. The ensuing decade, such famous penny bloods as Manuscripts from the Diary of a Physician, Varney the Vampyre, Sweeney Todd, and The Mysteries of London addressed issues of medical ethics, social power, and bodily agency. Challenging traditional views of penny bloods as a lowlier, un-readable genre, this book rereads these four narratives in the light of the 1832 Anatomy Act, putting them in dialogue with different popular artistic forms and literary genres, as well as with the spaces of death and dissection in Victorian London, exploring their role as channels for circulating discourses about anatomy and ethics among the Victorian poor.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Gasperini, Anna

Fachgebiete

• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften Bioethik, Tierethik
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturgeschichte und Literaturkritik
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Angewandte Ethik & Soziale Verantwortung Bioethik, Tierethik
• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Geschichte der Medizin
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literarische Stoffe, Motive und Themen
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Englische Literatur

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Preface: Dissecting a Literary Monster.- 2. Penny Bloods, The Anatomy Act, and a Common Ground for Analysis.- 3. Manuscripts from the Diary of a Physician: Power, Ethics, and the Super-Doctor.- 4. Coping with the Displaced Corpse: Medicine, Truth, and Masculinity in Varney the Vampyre.- 5. Underground Truths: Sweeney Todd, Cannibalism, and Discourse Control.- 6. The Unknown Labyrinth: Radicalism, The Body, and the Anatomy Act in The Mysteries of London.- 7. Dissection Report: Patterns of Medicine and Ethics.

Über Autor(innen)

Anna Gasperini received her PhD from the National University of Ireland Galway. She specialises in Victorian popular fiction, Victorian medical history, and spatial and discourse theory. She is the current Membership Secretary of the UK-based Victorian Popular Fiction Association (VPFA).