The Aesthetics of Artifice - Villiers's L'Ève future

A detailed reading of Villiers de l'Isle-Adam's 1886 novel L'Eve future, this study explores the author's construction of the android woman from two angles: science and art. Marie Lathers shows that the novel is a satire of the era's belief that science would cure the ills of the modern world and redeem the femme fatale. She also exposes Villiers's prescient discussion of technologies that form hybrids of science and art. The only lengthy study of Villiers's novel in English, Lathers's book engages significant thinkers of nineteenth-century French aesthetic, medical, and scientific discourse. Contemporary cultural and feminist criticism, particularly that of Roland Barthes, Mary Ann Doane, and Judith Butler, forms the framework of her analysis.

About the author

Marie Lathers is associate professor of French at Iowa State University.

Product details

• Authors: Marie Lathers
• Publisher: UNC Department of Romance Studies
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 19.02.1997
• EAN: 9780807892589
• ISBN: 978-0-8078-9258-9
• No. of pages: 154
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 229 mm x 9 mm
• Weight: 234 g
• Series: North Carolina Studies in the
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > Romance linguistics / literary studies; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works