Popular Fiction and Brain Science in the Late Nineteenth Century

Examines how Gothic romances like Dracula and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde expressed fears and visionary possibilities suggested by neurological research.

List of contents

Introduction: cerebral localization and the late Victorian Gothic romance; Part I. Reactionaries: 1. Robert Louis Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde and the double brain; 2. Bram Stoker's Dracula and cerebral automatism; Part II. Materialists: 3. Photographic memory in the works of Grant Allen; Part III. Visionaries: 4. H. G. Wells and the evolution of the mad scientist; 5. Marie Corelli and the neuron; Epilogue; Looking forward.

About the author

Anne Stiles is Assistant Professor of English at St Louis University, Missouri.

Summary

Explores how Gothic romances engaged with late Victorian cognitive science. The book explains why popular novels like Dracula and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde expressed fears and visionary possibilities suggested by contemporary neurological research. This topic will interest literary scholars, historians of science and fans of Gothic literature more generally.

Product details

• Authors: Anne Stiles
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 21.08.2014
• EAN: 9781107442467
• ISBN: 978-1-107-44246-7
• No. of pages: 274
• Series: Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature & Culture; Cambridge Studies in Nineteent
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies