Science and Technology in the Age of Hawthorne, Melville, Twain, and James: Thinking and Writing Electricity PDF
Preview Science and Technology in the Age of Hawthorne, Melville, Twain, and James: Thinking and Writing Electricity
Science and Technology in the Age of Hawthorne, Melville,Twain,and James American Literature Readings in the 21st Century Series Editor: Linda Wagner-Martin American Literature Readings in the 21st Century publishes works by contempo- rary critics that help shape critical opinion regarding literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the United States. Published by Palgrave Macmillan Freak Shows in Modern American Imagination: Constructing the Damaged Body from Willa Cather to Truman Capote By Thomas Fahy Arab American Literary Fictions, Cultures, and Politics By Steven Salaita Women and Race in Contemporary U.S. Writing: From Faulkner to Morrison By Kelly Lynch Reames Science and Technology in the Age of Hawthorne, Melville, Twain, and James: Thinking and Writing Electricity By Sam Halliday Science and Technology in the Age of Hawthorne, Melville,Twain, and James Thinking and Writing Electricity Sam Halliday SCIENCEANDTECHNOLOGYINTHEAGEOFHAWTHORNE,MELVILLE,TWAIN,ANDJAMES © Sam Halliday,2007. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2007 978-1-4039-7672-7 All rights reserved.No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. First published in 2007 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™ 175 Fifth Avenue,New York,N.Y.10010 and Houndmills,Basingstoke,Hampshire,England RG21 6XS Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St.Martin’s Press,LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States,United Kingdom and other countries.Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-53732-7 ISBN 978-0-230-60509-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230605091 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Halliday,Sam. Science and technology in the age of Hawthorne,Melville,Twain,and James :thinking and writing electricity / Sam Halliday. p.cm. Includes index. 1.Science—United States—History––19th century. 2.Technology––United States––History––19th century. 3.Electricity––United States––History––19th century.4.Literature and science––United States––History––19th century.I.Title. Q127.U6H265 2007 509.73(cid:2)09034––dc22 2007061160 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd.,Chennai,India. First edition:June 2007 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 To my parents, Tim and Carolyn This page intentionally left blank Permissions I would like to thank L’Harmattan for permission to republish portions of my essay, “George Beard, Electricity, and the Nervous Body in the Nineteenth-Century,” first published in Homo Orthopedicus: Le corps et ses prosthèses à l’époque (post)moderniste, ed. Nathalie Roelens and Wanda Strauven (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2001), 76–86, and Oxford University Press for permission to republish portions of my article, “Deceit, Desire and Technology: A Media History of Secrets and Lies,” first published in Forum for Modern Language Studies, 37: 2 (2001), 141–54. This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Illustrations xi Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 Thinking and Writing Electricity 1 Vitality, Sociality, and the Idea of Ideas 3 The Sources of Electrical Thought: Science and Technology 6 The Dialectic of Old and New; The Organization of the Book 10 1 Time and Space 17 Introduction 17 “Annihilating” Time and Space 20 Railroads, Time, and the Logistical Sublime 24 Intimacy, Love, and Simultaneity 30 Powers of Mind 34 Ghosts of Electricity 39 Electro-Historicism: Henry Adams 44 Powers of Tradition 50 Coda: Inventing the “Medium” 56 2 Individual Difference and Self-Representation 59 Introduction 59 “Training,” Telegraphy, and Time 60 “The Physiology and Psychology of the Telegraphic Language” 65 Difference, Intersubjectivity, and Meaning 68 Habits, Speed, and Automatism 72 “Training,” and the Medium 76 “Resembling Oneself,” and Portrait Painting 77 “In-One-Another” and “After-Each-Other”: Bodies and Machines 81 Misrepresentation and the Voice 85 Distance, Sound, and Sense 90
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