Morbid Taste, Morbid Anatomy and Victorian Popular Literature

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Campo DC	Valore
dc.identifier	ECF_article_163
dc.title	Morbid Taste, Morbid Anatomy and Victorian Popular Literature
dc.contributor.author	Talairach-Vielmas Laurence
dc.publisher	Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing
dc.type	Articolo
dc.language.iso	en
dc.identifier.uri	http://edizionicafoscari.it/it/edizioni4/riviste/english-literature/2015/2/morbid-taste-morbid-anatomy-and-victorian-popular/
dc.description.abstract	This article examines the role that references to morbid anatomy played in some popular Victorian novels, such as those of Wilkie Collins. Because the allusions to morbid anatomy were closely related to the new type of realism that Victorian popular literature proposed, they participated in the definition of popular literature as vulgar, offensive and dangerous for impressionable young women. As this paper shows, indeed, images of morbid anatomy do not simply highlight and capitalize on the Victorians’ morbid fascination with death. Above all, by embodying and recording cultural responses to medical science, they offer insights into definitions of popular literature and popular taste.
dc.relation.ispartof	English Literature
dc.relation.ispartof	Vol. 2 \| Dicembre 2015
dc.issued	2015-12-01
dc.identifier.issn
dc.identifier.eissn	2420-823X
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.identifier.doi	10.14277/2420-823X/EL-2-2-15-5
dc.peer-review	yes
dc.subject	Anatomy
dc.subject	Anatomy
dc.subject	Body
dc.subject	Body
dc.subject	Medicine
dc.subject	Medicine
dc.subject	Sensation fiction
dc.subject	Sensation fiction

Articolo
open access peer reviewed

Laurence Talairach-Vielmas Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès/Centre Alexandre Koyré, France

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abstract

This article examines the role that references to morbid anatomy played in some popular Victorian novels, such as those of Wilkie Collins. Because the allusions to morbid anatomy were closely related to the new type of realism that Victorian popular literature proposed, they participated in the definition of popular literature as vulgar, offensive and dangerous for impressionable young women. As this paper shows, indeed, images of morbid anatomy do not simply highlight and capitalize on the Victorians’ morbid fascination with death. Above all, by embodying and recording cultural responses to medical science, they offer insights into definitions of popular literature and popular taste.

Pubblicato

01 Dicembre 2015

Lingua

Keywords: Body • Anatomy • Sensation fiction • Medicine

permalink http://doi.org/10.14277/2420-823X/EL-2-2-15-5

Copyright: © 2015 Laurence Talairach-Vielmas. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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