Syphilis in Victorian Literature and Culture: Medicine, Knowledge and the Spectacle of Victorian Invisibility PDF
Preview Syphilis in Victorian Literature and Culture: Medicine, Knowledge and the Spectacle of Victorian Invisibility
Palgrave Studies in Literature, Science and Medicine Series Editors Sharon Ruston Dept. of English and Creative Writing Lancaster University Lancaster, United Kingdom Alice Jenkins School of Critical Studies University of Glasgow Glasgow, United Kingdom Catherine Belling Feinberg School of Medicine Northwestern University Chicago, Illinois, USA Palgrave Studies in Literature, Science and Medicine is an exciting new seriesthatfocusesononeofthemostvibrantandinterdisciplinaryareasin literary studies: the intersection of literature, science and medicine. Comprised of academic monographs, essay collections, and Palgrave Pivotbooks,theserieswillemphasizeahistoricalapproachtoitssubjects, inconjunctionwitharangeofothertheoreticalapproaches.Theserieswill cover all aspects of this rich and varied field and is open to new and emerging topics aswell asestablished ones. Editorial board: Steven Connor, Professor of English, University of Cambridge, UK; Lisa Diedrich, Associate Professor in Women’s and Gender Studies, Stony Brook University, USA; Kate Hayles, Professor of English, Duke University, USA; Peter Middleton, Professor of English, UniversityofSouthampton,UK;SallyShuttleworth,ProfessorialFellowin English, St Anne’s College, University of Oxford, UK; Susan Squier, Professor of Women's Studies and English, Pennsylvania State University, USA;MartinWillis,ProfessorofEnglish,UniversityofWestminster,UK More information aboutthisseries at http://www.springer.com/series/14613 MonikaPietrzak-Franger Syphilis in Victorian Literature and Culture Medicine, Knowledge and the Spectacle of Victorian Invisibility MonikaPietrzak-Franger InstitutfürAnglistikundAmerikanistik UniversitätHamburg Hamburg,Germany PalgraveStudiesinLiterature,ScienceandMedicine ISBN978-3-319-49534-7 ISBN978-3-319-49535-4(eBook) DOI10.1007/978-3-319-49535-4 LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2017934332 ©TheEditor(s)(ifapplicable)andTheAuthor(s)2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher,whetherthewholeorpartofthematerialisconcerned,specificallytherightsof translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilarmethodology nowknownorhereafterdeveloped. Theuseofgeneraldescriptivenames,registerednames,trademarks,servicemarks,etc.inthis publicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesare exemptfromtherelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. Thepublisher,theauthorsandtheeditorsaresafetoassumethattheadviceandinformation in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publishernortheauthorsortheeditorsgiveawarranty,expressorimplied,withrespectto thematerialcontainedhereinorforanyerrorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeenmade.The publisherremainsneutralwithregardtojurisdictionalclaimsinpublishedmapsandinstitu- tionalaffiliations. Coverillustration:GeorgeHenryFox,SyphilodermaTuberculosis.InGeorgeHenryFox, Photographic Illustrations of Cutaneous Syphilis. New York: E.B. Treat, 1881. Plate XXV. ReproducedfromtheWellcomeLibrary. Printedonacid-freepaper ThisPalgraveMacmillanimprintispublishedbySpringerNature TheregisteredcompanyisSpringerInternationalPublishingAG Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:Gewerbestrasse11,6330Cham,Switzerland A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project has been an enterprise that took place over six years in institutions across Europe and the United States. Along the way, I have accrued many debts of gratitude to the individuals, organizations and funding bodies without whom the work would have been impossible. Research grants awarded by the University of Siegen allowed me to con- ductpreliminaryresearchintheUK.Agenerous2011–2012Volkswagen Fellowship at the Department of Anthropology at the Washington University in St Louis gave me invaluable time and resources to explore a number of medical collections across the United States. Here I also benefited immensely from the encouragement and inspiration provided bymymentorCarolynSargentaswellasthecolleaguesinthedepartment andfromthe support of Paul MichaelLützeler. My debts to the archivists and librarians are extensive. I am grateful to ChristineRuggere,curatoroftheHistoricalCollectionattheInstituteofthe History ofMedicineatthe JohnsHopkinsUniversity, for herassistancein theworkonJonathanHutchinson’scollection.AllthestaffoftheHaslemere EducationalMuseum,ColinGaleattheBethlemRoyalHospitalArchives, ElisabethBranderattheBeckerMedicalLibraryinStLouis,SarahPearson at the Hunterian Museum, the librarians and archivists of the Wellcome Library,theBritishLibrary,theNationalArchives,theNationalLibraryof Medicine in Bethesda, USA, the London Metropolitan Archives and the Women’sLibrarywereunfailinglyhelpful. I owe the genesis of this book to Tomek Śpiewak, who presented his work on Wyspiański’s art and biography in our doctoral colloquium and thanks to whom I realized the abundance of visual materials devoted to v vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS the disease. Throughout this project, colleagues and mentors at the University of Siegen (Uta Fenske, Marcel Hartwig, Anja Müller, Kerstin Schmidt, Angela Schwarz, Juliane Stevens, Pia Wiegmink, Gregor Schuhen), TU Braunschweig (Sarah Ablett, Rüdiger Heinze, Jenny Jakisch, Nora Pleßke and Maria Marcsek-Fuchs) and at the University of Hamburg (Ute Berns, Astrid Böger, Peter Hühn, Jan Kucharzewski, Stephan Karschay, H.-P. Rodenberg, Susanne Rohr and Susanne Rupp) havebeenconsistentlysupportive–Ithankthemforalltheconversations, encouragementandhelp.IhavebeenluckytobenefitfromEckartVoigt’s constant generosity and advice and from the invaluable comments and advice of many colleagues who listened to parts of the book given as lectures in its formative stages. I profited from the advice of Ann Heilmann, Martha Stoddard Holmes, Marie-Luise Kohlke, Angelique Richardson, Martin Middeke, Antonija Primorac, Christine Ferguson, PaulYoungandMaryWilsonCarpenter.Iamthankfultomanycolleagues in visual culture studies and medical humanities who have supported and encouraged me on the way: Susanne Scholz, Peter Leese, Ludmila Jordanova, Paula Treichler, Heinz-Peter Schmiedebach. This book bears the imprint of many other colleagues whose work I have been avidly reading: Gillian Beer, Mike Ball, Isabel Armstrong, Kate Flint, Philippa Levine,Sander L.Gilman andPamelaGilbert. Finally,Iamparticularlygratefultocolleagueswhosparedtimetoread parts of the manuscript: Eckart Voigts, Stefan Brandt, Angelica Zeller- Michaelson, Marcel Hartwig, Franziska Bomski, Tim Peetz, Stefan Schenk-Haupt, Marlene Schurig and Alina Lange. I am also thankful to Ben Doyle for commissioning the book and to Manoj Mishra, the whole Palgrave/Springerteamforsupportingmeinthefinalstagesofmanuscript preparation. For their encouragement and guidance, I am indebted to my family, friendsandespeciallytomyhusband,RainerFranger,forhisunremitting support. A T B BOUT HIS OOK ShortDescription of the Book Taking as a point of departure the culture of the European fin-de-siècle, Syphilis in Victorian Literature and Culture addresses the evident but unexplored intertwining of visibility and invisibility in the discourses around syphilis. A rethinking of the disease with reference to its ambig- uous status and the ways of seeing that it generated helps reconsider the network of socio-cultural and political interrelations which were nego- tiated through syphilis, thereby also raising larger questions about its functionintheconstructionofindividual,nationalandimperialidentities. Syphilis in Victorian Literature and Culture is the first large-scale inter- disciplinarystudyofsyphilisinlateVictorianBritainwhosesignificancelies in its unprecedented attention to the multimedia and multi-discursive evocations of syphilis. An examination of the heterogeneous sources that it offers, many of which have up to this point escaped critical attention, makes it possible to reveal the complex and poly-ideological reasons for the activation of syphilis imagery and its symbolic function in late Victorianculture. Even shorter descriptionof the Book The book offers a synchronic and systematic view of the multi-media evocations of syphilis in the late nineteenth century and of its cultural significanceagainst thebackground of larger Europeantrends. vii C ONTENTS 1 Introduction:Waysof Seeing 1 Syphilis and Its(In)Visibility 4 CriticalBlind Spots 11 Peripatetic Viewing 14 Notes 23 2 AetiologyandEtymology:Concepts, Bodies,Media 27 Syphilis Concepts 29 Discursive-Material Syphilis 36 Syphilis-in-Media 44 Media Productionand Dissemination ofKnowledge about Syphilis:A CaseStudy 52 Reframing Grünewald: TheRhetoricsof (Icono)Texts 64 Notes 67 3 RecognizingSyphilis: PornographicKnowledgeandthe Politicsof Explanation 71 MedicalSightingsand Protective Narratives 74 Professional andCivic Narratives inthe Polyclinic 78 Self-fashioning 88 Unhealthy Sights and theConspiracy ofSilence 91 Feminist and NewWoman Voices onSyphilis 92 Wagesof Ignorance:Domestic MedicineManuals 95 ix x CONTENTS PublicAnatomyMuseums: (Cautionary)Tales of Moral Perditionand FinancialProfit 102 RecognizingSyphilis 112 PornographicKnowledge 118 Notes 121 4 FacingPathology:Modern(Re)Production of Difference 127 The Poeticsand Politics ofSyphilis Typologies 130 Facing Syphilis:Visual Typologies 132 Shifting Appearances:From Women’sBodies to Contagious Touch 144 The Bodyof Consumption/ConsumptiveBodies 152 Syphilis forPublicConsumption 153 The Pleasuresof theMarketplace 1:Modernist Aesthetics 162 The Pleasuresof theMarketplace 2:Hysteria and Individuality 167 The Power ofMimicry 177 Notes 179 5 Prophylaxisand Treatment: Geopolitics ofDifferentiation 185 Mapping the Pox-RiddenWorld 188 Geographies in Flux: Space,Syphilis andSoldiers’Mobility 190 Coloniesand Cordons Sanitaires 191 Distance,Movement and Care 199 Containment atthe Border 203 Lock Hospitals:NodalPoints of (In)Visibility 208 Spaces of Isolationand Invisibility 209 Sites ofReformation and Healing 218 The Geopolitics ofRepresentation 224 Notes 226 6 (Eugenic)Utopias: National FutureandIndividual Suffering 233 Heredity,VictorianChildhoodandSpectresof(De/Re)Generation 238 Hereditary Syphilis,MedicalUncertainties and Popular Fears 240
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