Danahay, Martin. \u201cWells, Galton and Biopower: Breeding Human Animals.\u201d Journal of
\nVictorian Culture 17.4 (2012): 468-79. Print.
\nDanahay begins his essay by defining the Foucaultian term \u2018biopower\u2019, which he claims is \u201cthe treatment of humans as a \u2018population\u2019 amenable to management in the same terms as other natural resources\u201d (468). With this framing, he moves into Wells\u2019s critique of Francis Galton\u2019s hope that \u201ceugenics would become an internalized \u2018creed\u2019,\u201d (470), insisting upon the inherently violent and brutal nature of natural selection, and therefore bringing the discussion of eugenics back under the umbrella of the macabre. Danahay suggests that this shift in tone is clear in Wells\u2019s The Island of Doctor Moreau, while exemplifying the horror that the narrator Prendick experiences when he experiences the beast people: \u201cWells expresses the common anxiety of that there was no stable boundary between the animal and the human, with the animal a potential within all humans because of their common ancestry,\u201d (473). Furthermore, Danahay also notes how Wells tends to commodify the lesser species in his novels \u201cLike the Martians (of The War of the Worlds) the Morlocks, have turned the Eloi into breeding stock and cull them as humans do cattle. This document becomes useful to my research when considering how real-world, Victorian anxieties have become transposed to the horrific in Victorian Science Fiction, specifically those regarding eugenics and human value.<\/p>\n
Danta, Chris. \u201cThe future will have been animal: Dr. Moreau and the aesthetics of monstrosity.\u201d
\nTextual Practice. 26.4 (2012): 687-705. Electronic.
\nThe focus of Danta\u2019s essay is anachronism and its purpose in science fiction: \u201cMy claim here is that literature \u2013 and especially that form of literature known as science fiction \u2013 is deliberately anachronistic in the sense that it consciously asks readers to reflect upon the relation between the time they nominally inhabit and the future,\u201d (688). Danta cites Doctor Moreau as a work that uses this deliberate anachronism. A prominent example of this in the text, according to Danta, is Wells\u2019s appendix to the story in which he claims that nothing presented in the account is outside of the realm of possibility (689 \u2013 90). Essentially, Danta is stating that the application of \u2018science\u2019 in Wells\u2019s novels are anachronistic, opposed to the \u2018fantastic\u2019 which was a much more common trope (690). The use value of Danta\u2019s essay comes from his description of the \u201cmonstrous anthropomorphism\u201d (697), and the \u201ctheological grotesque\u201d (701) in Doctor Moreau, and can better draw out my understanding of fear rhetoric in these novels.<\/p>\n
Davis, Colin. \u201cFrom psychopathology to diabolical evil: Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde and Jean Renoir.\u201d
\nThe Journal of Romance Studies 12.1 (2012): 10-23. Electronic.
\nIn his essay, Davis compares the book Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to filmmaker Jean Renoir\u2019s Le Testament du doctuer Cordelier, his movie adaptation of the story. He juxtaposes the complexity of Dr. Jekyll\u2019s condition with the character Opale from Renoir\u2019s film, an evil persona born from the potion (12). Jekyll, on the other hand, Davis believes to be more complex: \u201cJekyll\u2019s duality is presented in the story as a kind of illness (because it impedes his desire for a contented life) and the ordinary condition of humankind. The \u2018norm\u2019 of unified and stable identity is universally and fundamentally questioned,\u201d (11-12). He presents Kant\u2019s definition of evil, which \u201ccomes about when we give priority to our desires rather than the law,\u201d (15). Here is where I find my use value in Davis\u2019s argument. By providing Kant\u2019s definition of evil through disregard of the law and exemplifying this through Jekyll and Hyde, Davis has engaged my thought of instances of \u2018evil\u2019 in Wells\u2019s novels, especially in regard to \u2018the law\u2019 in Doctor Moreau.<\/p>\n
Harris, Mason. \u201cVivisection, the Culture of Science, and Intellectual Uncertainty in The Island of
\nDoctor Moreau.\u201d Gothic Studies 2 (2002): 99-115. Print.
\nIn this work, Harris claims, \u201cWells\u2019s choice of vivisection to generate Gothic horror endows the story with a deep ambivalence towards science and contributes much to the mood of anxious uncertainty in which it ends,\u201d (99). The ending in question is, naturally, Wells\u2019s aforementioned appendix. Moreau, he argues, is equal parts \u201cdedicated researcher and the sadistic torturer of animals\u201d (100), representing the opposing arguments of vivisection in the Victorian culture. This document is useful in my research because of Harris\u2019s claim that Doctor Moreau is indeed gothic horror, as well as his analysis that this may have \u201cundermined the authority of science more thoroughly than he intended,\u201d (101), providing an interesting counter-argument to Danahay\u2019s defense of Wells\u2019 desire to bring out the horror of the sciences.<\/p>\n
Khader, Jamil. \u201cUn\/Speakability and Radical Otherness: The Ethics of Trauma in Bram Stoker\u2019s
\nDracula.\u201d College Literature 39.2 (2012): 73-97. Print.<\/p>\n
Lee, Michael. \u201cReading Meat in H. G. Wells.\u201d Studies in the Novel 42.3: 249-268. Print.
\nThe focus of Lee\u2019s essay is the depiction of cannibalism and flesh in The Island of Doctor Moreau and The Time Machine. Lee explores the societal anxieties of the \u201ccannibalistic implications of meat eating after the popularization of the evolution theory,\u201d (251). Lee claims this anxiety is stressed much more in Doctor Moreau. He claims that Prendick\u2019s \u201cattempted survival cannibalism is mirrored in the bloodthirsty appetites of the island natives,\u201d (252) thereby suggesting that cannibalism is a theme present throughout the novel. He compares this to the narrator\u2019s discovery of cannibalism in The Time Machine (252 \u2013 3). This document offers excellent insight into the real world Victorian anxiety about cannibalism, and how Wells fleshes out these anxieties by presenting them in the horrific.<\/p>\n
McKechnie, Claire. \u201cSpiders, Horror, and Animal Others in Late Victorian Empire
\nFiction.\u201d Journal of Victorian Culture 17.4 (2012): 505-16. Print.
\nMcKechnie begins her essay by speaking of the work of naturalist J.G. Wood, and framing her argument around a quote about \u2018arachnophobia\u2019 (505). She states that spiders became associated with \u201cdismay and terror,\u201d (506) during the late Victorian era, and that empire fiction writers, such as H.G. Wells, would capitalize on this association. Specifically, McKechnie claims that Wells uses the spider as a \u201ckey symbol of horror and fascination in fin-de-si\u00e8cle literary culture,\u201d (507), and incorporates such symbolism in The War of the Worlds by virtue of the spider-vehicles driven by the Martians (514 \u2013 15). This essay is particularly useful in exploring other fin-de-si\u00e8cle novels, as well as a further example of Victorian science being represented as \u2018the Gothic\u2019.<\/p>\n
Paudyal, Bed. \u201cTrauma, Sublime, and the Ambivalence of Imperialist Imagination in H.G.
\nWells\u2019s The War of the Worlds.\u201d Extrapolation: A Journey of Science Fiction and Fantasy 50.1: 102-119. Print.
\nPaudyal\u2019s argument is based in his perceived duality of the narrator of The War of The Worlds. He claims that Wells\u2019s narration is, \u201csplit between the ethical imperative that aligns itself with humanity as such (and even transcends the latter to include within its orbit other species), on the one hand; and the social-Darwinist imperative holding tenaciously onto the imperialist\/ colonialist interest, on the other,\u201d (103). According to Paudyal, this split in necessary in expressing both \u2018trauma\u2019 and the \u2018sublime\u2019 in the story. He discusses Freud and trauma, stating that Freud believes that there exists a \u201cdeep-seeded \u2026 inertia that refuses change\/growth,\u201d (106). Paudyal then gives an example of this inertia in Wells\u2019s The War of the Worlds. When the group of spectators gathers around the first Martian landing site, Wells pays special attention to the inaction taken by individuals in the event of extreme horror (107 \u2013 108). To Paudyal, this is the epitome of trauma and the sublime working in tandem. The effect is an overwhelming and hopeless sense of dread in the characters of the novel. This essay is particularly useful in engaging with the trauma of potential reverse colonization, a prominent anxiety in Victorian culture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Danahay, Martin. \u201cWells, Galton and Biopower: Breeding Human Animals.\u201d Journal of Victorian Culture 17.4 (2012): 468-79. Print. Danahay begins his essay by defining the Foucaultian term \u2018biopower\u2019, which he claims is \u201cthe treatment of humans as a \u2018population\u2019 amenable to management in the same terms as other natural resources\u201d (468). With this framing, he moves […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2445,"featured_media":0,"parent":577,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-624","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2445"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":626,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/624\/revisions\/626"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}