Horace Wells as a classic tragic hero.

Horace Wells is discussed in a literary manner as a classic tragic hero. Wells' apparent failed end is not the ultimate truth concerning him. His story helps us see and confront life. Many of the scientific, personal, and social issues he grappled with are relevant to us today such as human experimentation and drug addiction. His idealism and romantic pursuit are to be admired. We benefit today from the achievements of his daring and fateful quest.

The genealogy of dwarfs: reproduction and romantic mythology in Goethe's New Melusine.

Goethe's studies of natural form have occupied generations of scholars and the discussion on the relationship between Goethe's thought and evolutionary theory has never ceased since Haeckel's claims in the late nineteenth century. In scholarship which has aimed to address the question of change in Goethe's concept of nature, the focus has been primarily on his scientific writings. Aiming for a comprehensive understanding of Goethe's thought on reproduction, this article sets out to contribute to the ongoing debate by focusing on his literary text The New Melusine, a story centred on a dwarf figure. Examining texts by naturalists such as Buffon, Humboldt, and Darwin, the article demonstrates how Goethe, in the speculative framework of a literary text, explores patterns of transformation by means of sexual reproduction which did not make it into his better known scientific writings on plant morphology and comparative anatomy. I argue that the Melusine story becomes for Goethe a space to consider a new understanding of reproduction, its transformative power, and biopolitical possibilities, while at the same time providing an opportunity to reflect critically on its consequences for the individual.

Ressonâncias do romantismo e da literatura fantástica na psicanálise / Les échos du Romantisme et de la Littérature fantastique en psychanalyse / Resonancias del romanticismo y la literatura fantástica en el psicoanálisis / Echoes of romanticism and fantastic literature in psychoanalysis

Resumo Mapeiam-se os processos históricos, estéticos e epistêmicos dos séculos XVIII e XIX que associam romantismo, literatura fantástica e psicanálise. Defende-se que o fantástico constitui um importante vetor por meio do qual elementos do romantismo foram incorporados ao modelo psicanalítico de aparelho psíquico. Parte-se da perspectiva de que a assimilação da influência romântica realizou-se de forma seletiva e criativa. Destacam-se alguns pontos de tensões e compromissos entre romantismo e o iluminismo, que foram retomados e transformados pelo fantástico e a psicanálise: as temáticas do amor, da loucura, da sexualidade, das superstições e dos mitos; o questionamento da relação entre o real e suas representações e entre pensamento e consciência; e a valorização do uso retórico da ironia. Aponta-se a abordagem psicanalítica do infamiliar (Unheimliche) como o momento mais sensível dessa interlocução.

Résumé Cet article cartographie les processus historiques, esthétiques et épistémiques des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles qui associent le romantisme, la littérature fantastique et la psychanalyse. On soutient que le fantastique constitue un vecteur important par lequel des éléments du romantisme ont été incorporés dans le modèle psychanalytique de l'appareil psychique. Cette perspective repose sur le fait que l'assimilation de l'influence romantique s'est déroulée de manière sélective et créative. On mit en évidence certains points de tension et de compromis entre le romantisme et les Lumières, repris et transformés par le fantastique et la psychanalyse : les thèmes de l'amour, de la folie, de la sexualité, des superstitions et des mythes ; la remise en cause du rapport entre le réel et ses représentations et entre la pensée et la conscience ; et l'usage rhétorique de l'ironie. On signale l'approche psychanalytique de l'Unheimliche comme le moment le plus sensible de cette interlocution.

Resumen Se cartografían los procesos históricos, estéticos y epistémicos del siglo XVIII y XIX que asocian el romanticismo, la literatura fantástica y el psicoanálisis. Se argumenta que lo fantástico es un importante vector a través del cual los elementos del romanticismo se han incorporado al modelo psicoanalítico del aparato psíquico. Se entiende que la asimilación de la influencia romántica se produjo de forma selectiva y creativa. Se destacan algunos puntos de tensión y compromiso entre el romanticismo y la ilustración que han sido asumidos y transformados por lo fantástico y el psicoanálisis: los temas del amor, la locura, la sexualidad, las supersticiones y los mitos; el cuestionamiento de la relación entre lo real y sus representaciones y entre pensamiento y conciencia; y la apreciación del uso retórico de la ironía. El enfoque psicoanalítico de lo ominoso (Unheimliche) se señala como el momento más sensible de esta interlocución.

Abstract This paper maps the historical, aesthetic, and epistemic processes of the 18th and 19th centuries that associate romanticism, fantastic literature and psychoanalysis. We argue that fantastic is an important vector through which elements of Romanticism were incorporated into the psychoanalytic model of the psyche. Assuming that such Romantic influences were assimilated selectively and creatively, we highlight some points of contention and compromise between romanticism and the Enlightenment that were later resumed and transformed by fantastic literature and psychoanalysis: the themes of love, madness, sexuality, superstitions and myths; the relationship between reality and its representations and between thought and consciousness; and the rhetorical use of irony. Finally, the text points to the psychoanalytic approach of the uncanny (Unheimliche) as the most sensitive moment of such exchange.

Spinal Deformities in Romantic Operas.

: The librettos of several of the most famous Romantic operas contain references to disease. These operas can serve as valuable sources of information regarding how spinal deformities were understood during the nineteenth century by physicians and lay persons alike. Original librettos of the operas "Rigoletto" (1851) by Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) and "La Esmeralda" (1836) by Louise Bertin (1805-1877) were analyzed. In both operas, spinal deformities of Rigoletto and Quasimodo are a central issue. In detail, Quasimodo could suffer from von Recklinghausen's neurofibromatosis, while Rigoletto could be affected by severe adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. The plays are an expression of the nineteenth century attitude toward deformity: the hunchbacks are ridiculed and excluded from the society due to their deformity. Thus, they are forced by society to act as ugly and evil beings. Although both Rigoletto and Quasimodo show an intense love, at the end of each opera, they are defeated by loss of this love. This is an evident sign that, despite its willingness to tackle the subject, nineteenth-century society was not still ready to attribute success or human value to people affected by disabilities.Level of Evidence: 5.

Epigenesis by experience: Romantic empiricism and non-Kantian biology.

Reconstructions of Romantic-era life science in general, and epigenesis in particular, frequently take the Kantian logic of autotelic "self-organization" as their primary reference point. I argue in this essay that the Kantian conceptual rubric hinders our historical and theoretical understanding of epigenesis, Romantic and otherwise. Neither a neutral gloss on epigenesis, nor separable from the epistemological deflation of biological knowledge that has received intensive scrutiny in the history and philosophy of science, Kant's heuristics of autonomous "self-organization" in the third Critique amount to the strategic capture of epigenesis from nature, for thought, in thought's critical transcendence of nature. This essay looks to Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and his English contemporary Erasmus Darwin to begin to reconstruct the rigorously materialist, naturalist, and empiricist theories of epigenesis (still) marginalized by Kantian argumentation. As theorists of environmental and social collaboration in the ontogeny of viable forms, Lamarck and Darwin illuminate features of our own epigenetic turn obscured by the rhetoric of "self-organization," allowing us to glimpse an alternative Romantic genealogy of the biological present.

The Darwinian tension: Romantic science and the causal laws of nature.

There have been attempts to subsume Charles Darwin's theory of evolution under either one of two distinct intellectual traditions: early Victorian natural science and its descendants in political economy (as exemplified by Herschel, Lyell, or Malthus) and the romantic approach to art and science emanating from Germany (as exemplified by Humboldt and Goethe). In this paper, it will be shown how these traditions may have jointly contributed to the design of Darwin's theory. The hypothesis is that their encounter created a particular tension in the conception of his theory which first opened up its characteristic field and mode of explanation. On the one hand, the domain of the explanandum was conceived of under a holistic and aesthetic view of nature that, in its combination with refined techniques of observation, was deeply indebted to Humboldt in particular. On the other hand, Darwin fashioned explanations for natural phenomena, so conceived, in order to identify their proper causes in a Herschelian spirit. The particular interaction between these two traditions in Darwin, it is concluded, paved the way for a transfer of the idea of causal laws to animate nature while salvaging the romantic idea of a complex, teleological and harmonious order of nature.

Transatlantic Irritability: Brunonian sociology, America and mass culture in the nineteenth century.

The widespread influence exerted by the medical theories of Scottish doctor, John Brown, whose eponymously named Brunonianism radically simplified the ideas of his mentor, William Cullen, has not been generally recognised. However, the very simplicity of the Brunonian medical model played a key role in ensuring the dissemination of medical ideas about nervous irritability and the harmful effects of overstimulation in the literary culture of the nineteenth century and shaped early sociological thinking. This chapter suggests the centrality of these medical ideas, as mediated by Brunonianism, to the understanding of Romanticism in the nineteenth century, and argues that Brunonian ideas shaped nineteenth-century thinking about the effects of mass print culture in ways which continue to influence contemporary thinking about the effects of media.