Victorian Demons: Medicine, Masculinity and the Gothic at the Fin-de-siecle: Medicine, masculinity, and the Gothic at the fin-de-siècle - Softcover

Andrew Smith

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0719063574 ISBN 13: 9780719063572

Publisher: Manchester University Press, 2004

Synopsis

Victorian demons provides the first extensive exploration of largely middle-class masculinities in crisis at the fin de siecle. It analyses how ostensibly controlling models of masculinity became demonised in a variety of literary and medical contexts, revealing the period to be much more ideologically complex than has hitherto been understood, and makes a significant contribution to Gothic scholarship. Andrew Smith demonstrates how a Gothic language of monstrosity, drawn from narratives such as 'The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' and 'Dracula', increasingly influenced a range of medical and cultural contexts, destabilising these apparently dominant masculine scripts. He provides a coherent analysis of a range of examples relating to masculinity drawn from literary, medical, legal and sociological contexts, including Joseph Merrick ('The Elephant Man'), the Whitechapel murders of 1888, Sherlock Holmes's London, the writings and trials of Oscar Wilde, theories of degeneration and medical textbooks on syphilis. -- .

About this title

Review:

Victorian demons is a valuable contribution to studies arguing that masculinity is not a self-evident and unproblematic concept. Victorian demons is a worthwhile contribution to a growing literature examining the centrality of themes relating to gender and pathology which were deployed and re-constructed over diverse cultural texts and historical episodes. (Tracey Loughran, Queen Mary, University of London, Medical History 49) --Tracey Loughran, Queen Mary, University of London, Medical History 49

Synopsis:

Victorian demons provides the first extensive exploration of largely middle-class masculinities in crisis at the fin de siecle. It analyses how ostensibly controlling models of masculinity became demonised in a variety of literary and medical contexts, revealing the period to be much more ideologically complex than has hitherto been understood. Andrew Smith demonstrates how a Gothic language of monstrosity, drawn from narratives such as The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Dracula increasingly influenced a range of medical and cultural contexts, destabilising these apparently dominant masculine scripts. He provides a coherent analysis of a range of examples relating to masculinity drawn from literary, medical, legal and sociological contexts, including Joseph Merrick (the Elephant Man), the Whitechapel murders of 1888, Sherlock Holmes's London, the writings and trials of Oscar Wilde, theories of degeneration and medical textbooks on syphilis.

About this edition

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0719063574
• ISBN 13: 9780719063572
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 200