Romantic Automata: Exhibitions, Figures, Organisms

265 Pages·2020·14.801 MB·English

by  Michael Demson, Christopher R. Clason

Romantic Automata
TRANSITS:
LIT ER A TURE, THOUGHT & CULTURE, 1650–1850
Series Editors
Kathryn Parker, University of Wisconsin— La Crosse
Miriam Wallace, New College of Florida
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Romantic
Automata
EXHIBITIONS, FIGURES, ORGANISMS
Edited by
MICHAEL DEMSON AND
CHRISTOPHER R. CLASON
LEWISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Demson, Michael, editor. | Clason, Christopher R., editor.
Title: Romantic automata : exhibitions, figures, organisms / edited
by Michael Demson, Christopher R. Clason.
Description: Lewisburg, Pennsylvania : Bucknell University Press,
2020. | Series: Transits: literature, thought & culture 1650–1850 |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019028588 | ISBN 9781684481767 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781684481774 (hardback) | ISBN 9781684481781 (epub) |
ISBN 9781684481798 (mobi) | ISBN 9781684481804 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: English literature—19th century—History and
criticism. | English literature—18th century—History and criticism.
| Robots in literature. | Literature and technology—Great Britain—
History—19th century. | Literature and technology—Great
Britain—History—18th century. | Romanticism—Great Britain.
Classification: LCC PR457 .R626 2020 | DDC 820.9/145—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019028588
A British Cataloging- in- Publication rec ord for this book is available
from the British Library.
This collection copyright © 2020 by Bucknell University Press
Individual chapters copyright © 2020 in the names of their authors
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by
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Please contact Bucknell University Press, Hildreth- Mirza Hall,
Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA 17837-2005. The only exception
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American National Standard for Information Sciences— Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
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Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press
Manufactured in the United States of Amer i ca
CONTENTS
Illustrations vii
Introduction 1
Michael Demson and Christopher R. Clason
PART ONE: Exhibitions
1 The Uncanny Valley: E.T.A. Hoffmann,
Sigmund Freud, Masahiro Mori 19
Frederick Burwick
2 The (Re-)Winding of Hoffmann’s Automata:
From Offenbach’s 1881 Opera to Powell and
Pressburger’s 1951 Film 35
Ashley Shams
3 Uncanny Prosthetics: Wounded Bodies in the
Lithographs of Théodore Géricault, 1818–1820 51
Peter Erickson
PART TWO: Figures
4 Romantic Tales of Pseudo- Automata:
Jacques de Vaucanson and the Chess- Playing
Turk in Lit er a ture and Culture 87
Wendy C. Nielsen
CONTENTS
5 Rattled Women, Shaken Toys: Wollstonecraft,
Baudelaire, and the Musical Lady 106
Erin M. Goss
6 Automatic for All: Mary Shelley’s Posthuman
Passion 128
Kate Singer
7 “A little earthly idol to contract your ideas”:
Global Hermeneutics in Phebe Gibbes’s Zoriada,
or, Village Annals (1786) 146
Kathryn Freeman
PART THREE: Organisms
8 Schelling’s Uncanny Organism 167
Stefani Engelstein
9 “It . . . lives by dying”: S. T. Coleridge’s Non- Vital
Life and Colonial “Necoral- Politics” 186
Lenora Hanson
10 The Metaphysical Machinery of Mining in
Novalis’s Works 204
Christina M. Weiler
Acknowl edgments 221
Bibliography 223
Notes on Contributors 239
Index 243
[ vi ]
ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure 3.1 Théodore Géricault, Wounded Cuirassier Leaving the
Field of Battle, 1814 52
Figure 3.2 Théodore Géricault, Detail of Wounded Cuirassier 53
Figure 3.3 Théodore Géricault, Cart Laden with Wounded Soldiers, 1818 55
Figure 3.4 Théodore Géricault, The Return from Rus sia, 1818 56
Figure 3.5 Théodore Géricault, Study of Figure Group, with Detail
of Grenadier’s Head, 1818 58
Figure 3.6 Théodore Géricault, The Retreat from Rus sia, Watercolor, 1818 59
Figure 3.7 Théodore Géricault, Studies of Heads and Two Compositional
Studies, 1818 60
Figure 3.8 Théodore Géricault, Dappled Draught Horse Being Shod, ca. 1823 61
Figure 3.9 Théodore Géricault, The Severed Heads, ca. 1818–1820 65
Figure 3.10 Théodore Géricault, Mameluke Defending a Wounded
Trumpeter, 1818 67
Figure 3.11 Théodore Géricault, Head of a White Horse 68
Figure 3.12 Théodore Géricault, Two Draft Horses with a Sleeping
Driver, 1820–1822 69
Figure 3.13 Théodore Géricault, The Swiss Sentry at the Louvre, 1819 71
Figure 3.14 Detail of Jacques- Louis David, The Oath of the Horatii, 1784 72
Figure 3.15 Théodore Géricault, Portrait of Alfred Dedreux as a Child,
ca. 1819–1820 73
Figure 3.16 Théodore Géricault, Scene from Italian Street Life,
ca. 1816–1817 76
[ vii ]
ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure 3.17 Théodore Géricault, The Artillery Caisson, 1818 77
Figure 3.18 Théodore Géricault, A Paraleytic Woman, 1821 78
Figure 5.1 Henri- Louis Jaquet- Droz, La musicienne with the two boys 109
Figure 5.2 Henri- Louis Jaquet- Droz, Close-up of La musicienne’s face 113
Figure 5.3 S. W. Fores, Lady Squabb Shewing Off, or a Punster’s Joke, 1811 114
[ viii ]
Romantic Automata