Julian C. Knight
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199227693
- eISBN:
- 9780191711015
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199227693.003.0009
- Subject:
- Biology, Evolutionary Biology / Genetics, Disease Ecology / Epidemiology
The extent of single nucleotide polymorphism is reviewed, together with insights gained into the nature of allelic architecture in terms of haplotypes, linkage disequilibrium and recombination. The ...
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The extent of single nucleotide polymorphism is reviewed, together with insights gained into the nature of allelic architecture in terms of haplotypes, linkage disequilibrium and recombination. The utility of SNPs in defining genetic determinants of common disease is discussed including the rationale, results and diverse applications of the International HapMap Project. The recent development and application of genome-wide association studies is reviewed including the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium study of seven common diseases. Issues relating to design, analysis and interpretation of such studies are described. A detailed review of age-related macular degeneration and inflammatory bowel disease is presented, two common multifactorial diseases where genome-wide association studies have recently enjoyed considerable success. Research in these diseases illustrates the timeline of different approaches used in defining genetic determinants of common disease and how such analyses can provide novel insights into disease pathogenesis.Less
The extent of single nucleotide polymorphism is reviewed, together with insights gained into the nature of allelic architecture in terms of haplotypes, linkage disequilibrium and recombination. The utility of SNPs in defining genetic determinants of common disease is discussed including the rationale, results and diverse applications of the International HapMap Project. The recent development and application of genome-wide association studies is reviewed including the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium study of seven common diseases. Issues relating to design, analysis and interpretation of such studies are described. A detailed review of age-related macular degeneration and inflammatory bowel disease is presented, two common multifactorial diseases where genome-wide association studies have recently enjoyed considerable success. Research in these diseases illustrates the timeline of different approaches used in defining genetic determinants of common disease and how such analyses can provide novel insights into disease pathogenesis.
DAVID WRIGHT
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199246397
- eISBN:
- 9780191715235
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199246397.003.010
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
Within traditional medical history, John Langdon Down is seen as a physician who was ‘in advance of his time’ in the treatment and classification of persons with mental disabilities. He was ...
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Within traditional medical history, John Langdon Down is seen as a physician who was ‘in advance of his time’ in the treatment and classification of persons with mental disabilities. He was considered as one of the outstanding lights in the history of mental retardation, a pioneer comparable in impact in his field to Joseph Lister or Louis Pasteur. However, Down has also been accused of inventing an overtly ‘racist’ taxonomy of mental disability that stigmatised those with trisomy 21 for the next century. This chapter re-examines the social history and intellectual legacy of John Langdon Down, charting his rise from near obscurity to his formulation of Mongolism, or Down's syndrome, within the context of the 1860s anthropological debates over race. His ideas are contextualised within the articulation of degeneration theory that was slowly gaining a foothold in intellectual circles in Europe, Britain, and North America. Down was a profoundly successful medical man in a dynamic and uncertain market in the Victorian era, an example of the volatility and porosity of the social structure of Victorian England.Less
Within traditional medical history, John Langdon Down is seen as a physician who was ‘in advance of his time’ in the treatment and classification of persons with mental disabilities. He was considered as one of the outstanding lights in the history of mental retardation, a pioneer comparable in impact in his field to Joseph Lister or Louis Pasteur. However, Down has also been accused of inventing an overtly ‘racist’ taxonomy of mental disability that stigmatised those with trisomy 21 for the next century. This chapter re-examines the social history and intellectual legacy of John Langdon Down, charting his rise from near obscurity to his formulation of Mongolism, or Down's syndrome, within the context of the 1860s anthropological debates over race. His ideas are contextualised within the articulation of degeneration theory that was slowly gaining a foothold in intellectual circles in Europe, Britain, and North America. Down was a profoundly successful medical man in a dynamic and uncertain market in the Victorian era, an example of the volatility and porosity of the social structure of Victorian England.
Janet Oppenheim
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195057812
- eISBN:
- 9780199854394
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195057812.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
In 1905, the idea of nervous degeneration was inseparable from the more open discussion of moral degradation and physical debility. For a country beleaguered by worldwide competitors, nerves were ...
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In 1905, the idea of nervous degeneration was inseparable from the more open discussion of moral degradation and physical debility. For a country beleaguered by worldwide competitors, nerves were more than ever necessary to sustain the British people in their struggle to maintain international hegemony. In the clamor for national efficiency, conditions of body were inseparably intertwined with states of mind. Over and over again, all manner of alarmists asked whether the British people had, not merely the stamina, but the will to triumph over their rivals. Never had the connotations of power, force, and energy associated with the nerves assumed greater significance in the public consciousness. Curiously enough, degeneration theory prolonged the life of the mid-Victorian certainty that private exertions were the key to public progress.Less
In 1905, the idea of nervous degeneration was inseparable from the more open discussion of moral degradation and physical debility. For a country beleaguered by worldwide competitors, nerves were more than ever necessary to sustain the British people in their struggle to maintain international hegemony. In the clamor for national efficiency, conditions of body were inseparably intertwined with states of mind. Over and over again, all manner of alarmists asked whether the British people had, not merely the stamina, but the will to triumph over their rivals. Never had the connotations of power, force, and energy associated with the nerves assumed greater significance in the public consciousness. Curiously enough, degeneration theory prolonged the life of the mid-Victorian certainty that private exertions were the key to public progress.
Gerard O'Daly
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199263950
- eISBN:
- 9780191741364
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199263950.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter discusses the poem's presentation of appropriate Christian diet, moderate, avoiding the meat of quadrupeds, with meals preceded by prayer. Praise of food as the divine creator's gift is ...
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This chapter discusses the poem's presentation of appropriate Christian diet, moderate, avoiding the meat of quadrupeds, with meals preceded by prayer. Praise of food as the divine creator's gift is combined with the narrative of paradise and the fall of Adam and Eve, and subsequent human degeneration, until Christ, the gentle saviour, brings victory over the serpent Satan: the Christian hope is heavenly immortality of soul and resurrected body. The poem stresses the Adam-Christ and Eve-Mary contrasts. The appropriation of themes from Virgil and Ovid is discussed.Less
This chapter discusses the poem's presentation of appropriate Christian diet, moderate, avoiding the meat of quadrupeds, with meals preceded by prayer. Praise of food as the divine creator's gift is combined with the narrative of paradise and the fall of Adam and Eve, and subsequent human degeneration, until Christ, the gentle saviour, brings victory over the serpent Satan: the Christian hope is heavenly immortality of soul and resurrected body. The poem stresses the Adam-Christ and Eve-Mary contrasts. The appropriation of themes from Virgil and Ovid is discussed.
Mark Harrison
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199577736
- eISBN:
- 9780191595196
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199577736.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
Chapter 9 explores the medical marketplace of early nineteenth‐century Britain, with particular reference to tropical invalids and others deemed to have similar complaints. The chapter focuses on the ...
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Chapter 9 explores the medical marketplace of early nineteenth‐century Britain, with particular reference to tropical invalids and others deemed to have similar complaints. The chapter focuses on the spa resort of Cheltenham which grew rapidly in the early nineteenth century to accommodate large numbers of invalids returning from the tropical colonies. Former colonial practitioners made a good living in the town and some became proprietors of spas. However, competition between them was intense because of the return of many military and naval practitioners to civilian life at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. For some observers, resorts such as Cheltenham epitomized all that was wrong with British society. They were seen as resorts for the feckless and lazy, and as the stamping‐ground of charlatans and quacks. However, they served a vital role in domesticating the Empire and offered hope to invalids returning from tropical service.Less
Chapter 9 explores the medical marketplace of early nineteenth‐century Britain, with particular reference to tropical invalids and others deemed to have similar complaints. The chapter focuses on the spa resort of Cheltenham which grew rapidly in the early nineteenth century to accommodate large numbers of invalids returning from the tropical colonies. Former colonial practitioners made a good living in the town and some became proprietors of spas. However, competition between them was intense because of the return of many military and naval practitioners to civilian life at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. For some observers, resorts such as Cheltenham epitomized all that was wrong with British society. They were seen as resorts for the feckless and lazy, and as the stamping‐ground of charlatans and quacks. However, they served a vital role in domesticating the Empire and offered hope to invalids returning from tropical service.
Mark Harrison
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199577736
- eISBN:
- 9780191595196
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199577736.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This chapter examines some of the themes arising from earlier chapters through the career of James Johnson, one of the most influential practitioners of his day. After his retirement from the Royal ...
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This chapter examines some of the themes arising from earlier chapters through the career of James Johnson, one of the most influential practitioners of his day. After his retirement from the Royal Navy, Johnson began to write not only about tropical invalids but about degeneration in Britain, particularly among the inhabitants of large commercial towns. Johnson believed that imperial commerce had brought great benefits but that civilization had its down‐side, including a host of new ailments linked to over‐stimulation of the nervous system. These tended to manifest themselves in hypochondria and digestive disorders, and Johnson made a good living by offering homely advice about managing these disorders through diet and changes to lifestyle. The great popularity of Johnson's work shows that former colonial practitioners could use their experience of digestive disorders to good effect in the medical marketplace.Less
This chapter examines some of the themes arising from earlier chapters through the career of James Johnson, one of the most influential practitioners of his day. After his retirement from the Royal Navy, Johnson began to write not only about tropical invalids but about degeneration in Britain, particularly among the inhabitants of large commercial towns. Johnson believed that imperial commerce had brought great benefits but that civilization had its down‐side, including a host of new ailments linked to over‐stimulation of the nervous system. These tended to manifest themselves in hypochondria and digestive disorders, and Johnson made a good living by offering homely advice about managing these disorders through diet and changes to lifestyle. The great popularity of Johnson's work shows that former colonial practitioners could use their experience of digestive disorders to good effect in the medical marketplace.
Mark Harrison
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199577736
- eISBN:
- 9780191595196
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199577736.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
Chapter 11 examines the career of the naval physician Thomas Trotter, who claimed that two‐thirds of the population were suffering the ill‐effects of luxury and nervous over‐stimulation. He believed ...
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Chapter 11 examines the career of the naval physician Thomas Trotter, who claimed that two‐thirds of the population were suffering the ill‐effects of luxury and nervous over‐stimulation. He believed these ills to be hereditary and that the evils of his own generation would be passed on to subsequent ones, weakening a once proud and manly nation. Unlike his contemporary James Johnson, however, Trotter did not aim to ameliorate these problems by prescribing changes to lifestyle: he sought to remove their root causes. In his view, the chief evils of the time were colonial commerce, which had taken over from wholesome agriculture as the main source of national wealth, and the institution of slavery on which this commercial system was based. Trotter advocated not only the abolition of slavery but the abandonment of the sugar colonies, in which many British servicemen had lost their lives from disease.Less
Chapter 11 examines the career of the naval physician Thomas Trotter, who claimed that two‐thirds of the population were suffering the ill‐effects of luxury and nervous over‐stimulation. He believed these ills to be hereditary and that the evils of his own generation would be passed on to subsequent ones, weakening a once proud and manly nation. Unlike his contemporary James Johnson, however, Trotter did not aim to ameliorate these problems by prescribing changes to lifestyle: he sought to remove their root causes. In his view, the chief evils of the time were colonial commerce, which had taken over from wholesome agriculture as the main source of national wealth, and the institution of slavery on which this commercial system was based. Trotter advocated not only the abolition of slavery but the abandonment of the sugar colonies, in which many British servicemen had lost their lives from disease.
JOHN W. GRIFFIN, EDWIN B. GEORGE, SUNG-TSANG HSIEH, and JONATHAN D. GLASS
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195082937
- eISBN:
- 9780199865802
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195082937.003.0020
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, Disorders of the Nervous System
This chapter discusses cytoskeletal changes in axonal degeneration. It begins with a review of the organization of the normal axonal cytoskeleton, followed by a summary of the current understanding ...
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This chapter discusses cytoskeletal changes in axonal degeneration. It begins with a review of the organization of the normal axonal cytoskeleton, followed by a summary of the current understanding of Wallerian degeneration. It then considers the slowly evolving axonal degenerations in which alterations in neurofilament content are an early aspect, and their pathophysiology is assessed in terms of abnormalities of neurofilament synthesis, entry into the axon, transport, and turnover.Less
This chapter discusses cytoskeletal changes in axonal degeneration. It begins with a review of the organization of the normal axonal cytoskeleton, followed by a summary of the current understanding of Wallerian degeneration. It then considers the slowly evolving axonal degenerations in which alterations in neurofilament content are an early aspect, and their pathophysiology is assessed in terms of abnormalities of neurofilament synthesis, entry into the axon, transport, and turnover.
V. E. Fortov, I. T. Iakubov, and A. G. Khrapak
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199299805
- eISBN:
- 9780191714948
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199299805.003.0001
- Subject:
- Physics, Nuclear and Plasma Physics
This introductory chapter discusses different types of interparticle interactions (Coulomb, electron-atom, and ion-atom) and the criteria of nonideality. The classification of states is given and the ...
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This introductory chapter discusses different types of interparticle interactions (Coulomb, electron-atom, and ion-atom) and the criteria of nonideality. The classification of states is given and the range of existence of nonideal plasma is determined. The main features of really existent strongly coupled plasmas, such as two-component fully ionized plasma, plasma of metal vapors, plasma of hydrogen and rare gases, plasma of multiply charged ions, complex (dusty) plasma, and nonneutral plasma are considered. Several examples of the strongly coupled plasmas in nature are presented and possible scientific and technical applications are discussed.Less
This introductory chapter discusses different types of interparticle interactions (Coulomb, electron-atom, and ion-atom) and the criteria of nonideality. The classification of states is given and the range of existence of nonideal plasma is determined. The main features of really existent strongly coupled plasmas, such as two-component fully ionized plasma, plasma of metal vapors, plasma of hydrogen and rare gases, plasma of multiply charged ions, complex (dusty) plasma, and nonneutral plasma are considered. Several examples of the strongly coupled plasmas in nature are presented and possible scientific and technical applications are discussed.
Ina Zweiniger‐Bargielowska
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199280520
- eISBN:
- 9780191594878
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199280520.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter charts the emergence of life reform, vegetarianism, physical culture, and reducing culture, which have to be understood against the background of rapid urbanization, the rise of modern ...
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This chapter charts the emergence of life reform, vegetarianism, physical culture, and reducing culture, which have to be understood against the background of rapid urbanization, the rise of modern lifestyles, a proliferation of visual images of beautiful bodies, and eugenicist fears about racial degeneration. Men were urged to adopt a hygienic regimen and the chapter argues that the body was an important locus for the construction of masculinity. A beautiful, healthy, and fit male body was identified with hegemonic masculinity whereas countertypes such as the stunted, narrow‐chested urban labourer or the obese, flabby businessman signified degeneration. Cultural pessimism about modernity gave rise to growing fears of racial degeneration and biologically based rhetoric permeated social policy discourse from the 1880s. Public health campaigners called for social and environmental reforms, while physical and life reform promoters advocated the practice of hygienic regimen to restore and maintain health in modern urban conditions.Less
This chapter charts the emergence of life reform, vegetarianism, physical culture, and reducing culture, which have to be understood against the background of rapid urbanization, the rise of modern lifestyles, a proliferation of visual images of beautiful bodies, and eugenicist fears about racial degeneration. Men were urged to adopt a hygienic regimen and the chapter argues that the body was an important locus for the construction of masculinity. A beautiful, healthy, and fit male body was identified with hegemonic masculinity whereas countertypes such as the stunted, narrow‐chested urban labourer or the obese, flabby businessman signified degeneration. Cultural pessimism about modernity gave rise to growing fears of racial degeneration and biologically based rhetoric permeated social policy discourse from the 1880s. Public health campaigners called for social and environmental reforms, while physical and life reform promoters advocated the practice of hygienic regimen to restore and maintain health in modern urban conditions.
Julie Snowden
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199234110
- eISBN:
- 9780191594250
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199234110.003.028
- Subject:
- Psychology, Neuropsychology, Clinical Psychology
Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases that lead to progressive cognitive impairment are conventionally classified as ‘the dementias’. Dementia is traditionally defined as a ...
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Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases that lead to progressive cognitive impairment are conventionally classified as ‘the dementias’. Dementia is traditionally defined as a generalized impairment of intellect, the implication being that all aspects of mental function are uniformly impaired. A logical corollary is that the dementia associated with different disorders should be indistinguishable. This is far from the case. Degenerative diseases do not affect the brain in an undifferentiated manner. Rather, they have predilections for certain brain regions and show relative of sparing of others. In consequence, they are associated with distinct profiles of cognitive and behavioural change that can be identified with a high degree of accuracy. This chapter describes the neuropsychological presentations of the most common neurodegenerative disorders associated with cognitive change: Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal lobar degeneration, dementia with Lewy bodies, Huntington's disease, motor neurone disease, progressive supranuclear palsy, and corticobasal degeneration.Less
Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases that lead to progressive cognitive impairment are conventionally classified as ‘the dementias’. Dementia is traditionally defined as a generalized impairment of intellect, the implication being that all aspects of mental function are uniformly impaired. A logical corollary is that the dementia associated with different disorders should be indistinguishable. This is far from the case. Degenerative diseases do not affect the brain in an undifferentiated manner. Rather, they have predilections for certain brain regions and show relative of sparing of others. In consequence, they are associated with distinct profiles of cognitive and behavioural change that can be identified with a high degree of accuracy. This chapter describes the neuropsychological presentations of the most common neurodegenerative disorders associated with cognitive change: Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal lobar degeneration, dementia with Lewy bodies, Huntington's disease, motor neurone disease, progressive supranuclear palsy, and corticobasal degeneration.
Jane Wood
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198187608
- eISBN:
- 9780191674723
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198187608.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This chapter discusses nervous degeneration and its literary representation in the 1890s. Much of the fiction of the 1890s self-consciously engages with the physical and medical sciences to configure ...
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This chapter discusses nervous degeneration and its literary representation in the 1890s. Much of the fiction of the 1890s self-consciously engages with the physical and medical sciences to configure the new disease of ‘neurasthenia’, a nervous malady which came to be both casually and symbolically linked to the period. George Gissing's The Whirlpool and Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure are novels which situate narratives of nervous breakdown at the problematic intersection of biological theories of determinism and cultural anxieties about the alleged deleterious effects of modern life. The aim of this chapter is to look beyond the particulars of plot and personality which link these books thematically to New Woman fiction in order to reveal the extent of the influence of the biological and physical sciences in creating a culture of unease around the issue of sexual equality.Less
This chapter discusses nervous degeneration and its literary representation in the 1890s. Much of the fiction of the 1890s self-consciously engages with the physical and medical sciences to configure the new disease of ‘neurasthenia’, a nervous malady which came to be both casually and symbolically linked to the period. George Gissing's The Whirlpool and Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure are novels which situate narratives of nervous breakdown at the problematic intersection of biological theories of determinism and cultural anxieties about the alleged deleterious effects of modern life. The aim of this chapter is to look beyond the particulars of plot and personality which link these books thematically to New Woman fiction in order to reveal the extent of the influence of the biological and physical sciences in creating a culture of unease around the issue of sexual equality.
CATHERINE JAGOE
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198158868
- eISBN:
- 9780191673399
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198158868.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
The notion of inevitable decline or degeneration produced an aesthetic movement that revolved around a group of ‘decadent’ or Symbolist writers and painters of the late 19th century whose subjects ...
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The notion of inevitable decline or degeneration produced an aesthetic movement that revolved around a group of ‘decadent’ or Symbolist writers and painters of the late 19th century whose subjects and style had a considerable impact on European and American literature. United in their belief that God, morality, love, and nature were shibboleths of a pre-Darwinian age, the decadents were dedicated to maximising the sensations of the moment. Using Charles Baudelaire's Fleurs du mal as a model, they explored the strange terrain of sexual perversions, exoticism, and the occult. Decadents espoused a ‘love of art for art's sake’, unimpeded by any extra-aesthetic considerations. While their aesthetic theory is clearly alien to Benito Pérez Galdós's outlook, which is deeply concerned with morality and very far from the ‘art for art's sake’ of the aesthetes, some of their subject-matter does find its way into Ángel Guerra, in nuanced form.Less
The notion of inevitable decline or degeneration produced an aesthetic movement that revolved around a group of ‘decadent’ or Symbolist writers and painters of the late 19th century whose subjects and style had a considerable impact on European and American literature. United in their belief that God, morality, love, and nature were shibboleths of a pre-Darwinian age, the decadents were dedicated to maximising the sensations of the moment. Using Charles Baudelaire's Fleurs du mal as a model, they explored the strange terrain of sexual perversions, exoticism, and the occult. Decadents espoused a ‘love of art for art's sake’, unimpeded by any extra-aesthetic considerations. While their aesthetic theory is clearly alien to Benito Pérez Galdós's outlook, which is deeply concerned with morality and very far from the ‘art for art's sake’ of the aesthetes, some of their subject-matter does find its way into Ángel Guerra, in nuanced form.
Helena Ifill
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781784995133
- eISBN:
- 9781526136275
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781784995133.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This book explores the range of ways in which the two leading sensation authors of the 1860s, Mary Elizabeth Braddon and Wilkie Collins, engaged with nineteenth-century ideas about how the ...
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This book explores the range of ways in which the two leading sensation authors of the 1860s, Mary Elizabeth Braddon and Wilkie Collins, engaged with nineteenth-century ideas about how the personality is formed and the extent to which it can be influenced either by the subject or by others.
Innovative readings of Braddon’s and Collins’s sensation novels – some of them canonical, others less well-known – demonstrate how they reflect, employ, and challenge Victorian theories of heredity, degeneration, willpower, inherent constitution, education, insanity, upbringing and social circumstance. Far from presenting a reductive depiction of ‘nature’ versus ‘nurture’, Braddon and Collins show the creation of character to be a complex interplay of internal and external factors that are as much reliant on chance as on the efforts of the people who try to exert control over an individual’s development. Their works raise challenging questions about responsibility and self-determinism and, as the analyses of these texts reveals, demonstrate an acute awareness that the way in which character formation is understood fundamentally influences the way people (both in fiction and reality) are perceived, judged and treated.
Drawing on material from a variety of genres, including Victorian medical textbooks, scientific and sociological treatises, specialist and popular periodical literature, Creating character shows how sensation authors situated themselves at the intersections of established and developing, conservative and radical, learned and sensationalist thought about how identity could be made and modified.Less
This book explores the range of ways in which the two leading sensation authors of the 1860s, Mary Elizabeth Braddon and Wilkie Collins, engaged with nineteenth-century ideas about how the personality is formed and the extent to which it can be influenced either by the subject or by others.
Innovative readings of Braddon’s and Collins’s sensation novels – some of them canonical, others less well-known – demonstrate how they reflect, employ, and challenge Victorian theories of heredity, degeneration, willpower, inherent constitution, education, insanity, upbringing and social circumstance. Far from presenting a reductive depiction of ‘nature’ versus ‘nurture’, Braddon and Collins show the creation of character to be a complex interplay of internal and external factors that are as much reliant on chance as on the efforts of the people who try to exert control over an individual’s development. Their works raise challenging questions about responsibility and self-determinism and, as the analyses of these texts reveals, demonstrate an acute awareness that the way in which character formation is understood fundamentally influences the way people (both in fiction and reality) are perceived, judged and treated.
Drawing on material from a variety of genres, including Victorian medical textbooks, scientific and sociological treatises, specialist and popular periodical literature, Creating character shows how sensation authors situated themselves at the intersections of established and developing, conservative and radical, learned and sensationalist thought about how identity could be made and modified.
Ruth Harris
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198202592
- eISBN:
- 9780191675430
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198202592.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
The impact of medical knowledge was multifaceted, and was to some extent obscured even to contemporary participants. This chapter pays attention to the content of medical ideas and their impact on ...
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The impact of medical knowledge was multifaceted, and was to some extent obscured even to contemporary participants. This chapter pays attention to the content of medical ideas and their impact on the judicial domain. Too often dismissed today as the naive and dangerous champions of a narrow scientism, psychiatrists elaborated highly sophisticated theories, the persuasive power of which can be judged by the use of their medical vocabulary and concepts on all levels of society. The discussion hopes to demonstrate the impact of their formulations on specific individuals and to explain their effect by analysing psychiatric knowledge within the common cultural preoccupations of the era. Moreover, this chapter also attempts to show the connection between theoretical and clinical knowledge on the one hand, and the way that knowledge was deployed in the courtroom on the other.Less
The impact of medical knowledge was multifaceted, and was to some extent obscured even to contemporary participants. This chapter pays attention to the content of medical ideas and their impact on the judicial domain. Too often dismissed today as the naive and dangerous champions of a narrow scientism, psychiatrists elaborated highly sophisticated theories, the persuasive power of which can be judged by the use of their medical vocabulary and concepts on all levels of society. The discussion hopes to demonstrate the impact of their formulations on specific individuals and to explain their effect by analysing psychiatric knowledge within the common cultural preoccupations of the era. Moreover, this chapter also attempts to show the connection between theoretical and clinical knowledge on the one hand, and the way that knowledge was deployed in the courtroom on the other.
Justin E. H. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691153643
- eISBN:
- 9781400866311
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691153643.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter focuses on those early modern accounts of human phenotypic diversity that do not resort to claims of essential difference, but instead appeal to some form or other of degeneration to ...
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This chapter focuses on those early modern accounts of human phenotypic diversity that do not resort to claims of essential difference, but instead appeal to some form or other of degeneration to account for human diversity. Degenerationism is the view that there was an original, ideal type of the human species (and generally also of animal species), but that different groups have deviated from this perfect state as a result of migration, changes in diet and in climate, and hybridity with other species. The chapter shows that degenerationist accounts of human variety are particularly interesting in the way they conflate descriptive and normative claims. It also considers in some detail the place of apes, and in particular of higher primates, in degenerationist reflections on the lower limits of the human species.Less
This chapter focuses on those early modern accounts of human phenotypic diversity that do not resort to claims of essential difference, but instead appeal to some form or other of degeneration to account for human diversity. Degenerationism is the view that there was an original, ideal type of the human species (and generally also of animal species), but that different groups have deviated from this perfect state as a result of migration, changes in diet and in climate, and hybridity with other species. The chapter shows that degenerationist accounts of human variety are particularly interesting in the way they conflate descriptive and normative claims. It also considers in some detail the place of apes, and in particular of higher primates, in degenerationist reflections on the lower limits of the human species.
Andrew Frayn
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780719089220
- eISBN:
- 9781781707333
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719089220.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This book argues that disenchantment is not only a response to wartime experience, but a condition of modernity with a language that finds extreme expression in First World War literature. The ...
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This book argues that disenchantment is not only a response to wartime experience, but a condition of modernity with a language that finds extreme expression in First World War literature. The objects of disenchantment are often the very same as the enchantments of scientific progress: bureaucracy, homogenisation and capitalism. Older beliefs such as religion, courage and honour are kept in view, and endure longer than often is realised. Social critics, theorists and commentators of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries provide a rich and previously unexplored context for wartime and post-war literature. The rise of the disenchanted narrative to its predominance in the War Books Boom of 1928 – 1930 is charted from the turn of the century in texts, archival material, sales and review data. Rarely-studied popular and middlebrow novels are analysed alongside well-known highbrow texts: D. H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, H. G. Wells and Rebecca West rub shoulders with forgotten figures such as Gilbert Frankau and Ernest Raymond. These sometimes jarring juxtapositions show the strained relationship between enchantment and disenchantment in the war and the post-war decade.Less
This book argues that disenchantment is not only a response to wartime experience, but a condition of modernity with a language that finds extreme expression in First World War literature. The objects of disenchantment are often the very same as the enchantments of scientific progress: bureaucracy, homogenisation and capitalism. Older beliefs such as religion, courage and honour are kept in view, and endure longer than often is realised. Social critics, theorists and commentators of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries provide a rich and previously unexplored context for wartime and post-war literature. The rise of the disenchanted narrative to its predominance in the War Books Boom of 1928 – 1930 is charted from the turn of the century in texts, archival material, sales and review data. Rarely-studied popular and middlebrow novels are analysed alongside well-known highbrow texts: D. H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, H. G. Wells and Rebecca West rub shoulders with forgotten figures such as Gilbert Frankau and Ernest Raymond. These sometimes jarring juxtapositions show the strained relationship between enchantment and disenchantment in the war and the post-war decade.
WILLIAM W. SEELEY and BRUCE L. MILLER
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195173413
- eISBN:
- 9780199865758
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195173413.003.0010
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, Molecular and Cellular Systems
The self is experienced as a unified whole, yet self-representation by the brain requires an interconnected hierarchy of parts that can be selectively dismantled by neurological disease. This idea is ...
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The self is experienced as a unified whole, yet self-representation by the brain requires an interconnected hierarchy of parts that can be selectively dismantled by neurological disease. This idea is readily illustrated with the dementias, in which progressive regional degeneration can alter one aspect of the self while sparing others. This chapter summarizes the evolution of self-representational capacities, outlines the acquisition of the self during human development, and offers associations between the self's functional subcomponents and the brain structures that support them. From that perspective it discusses how the self can be unmade in patients with dementia.Less
The self is experienced as a unified whole, yet self-representation by the brain requires an interconnected hierarchy of parts that can be selectively dismantled by neurological disease. This idea is readily illustrated with the dementias, in which progressive regional degeneration can alter one aspect of the self while sparing others. This chapter summarizes the evolution of self-representational capacities, outlines the acquisition of the self during human development, and offers associations between the self's functional subcomponents and the brain structures that support them. From that perspective it discusses how the self can be unmade in patients with dementia.
Joan Tumblety
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199695577
- eISBN:
- 9780191745072
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199695577.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, Cultural History
This book is about interwar physical culture as a set of popular practices and as a field of ideas. It takes as its central subject the imagined failure of French manhood that was mapped out in this ...
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This book is about interwar physical culture as a set of popular practices and as a field of ideas. It takes as its central subject the imagined failure of French manhood that was mapped out in this realm by physical culturist ‘experts’, often physicians. Their diagnosis of intertwined crises in masculine virility and national vitality was surprisingly widely shared across popular and political culture. Theirs was a hygienist and sometimes overtly eugenicist conception of physical exercise and national strength that suggests the persistence of fin-de-siècle preoccupations with biological degeneration and regeneration well beyond the First World War. The book traces these patterns of thinking about the male body across a seemingly disparate set of voices, all of whom argued that the physical training of men offered a salve to France's real and imagined woes. In interrogating a range of sources, from get-fit manuals and the popular press, to the mobilizing campaigns of popular politics on left and right and official debates about physical education, the book illustrates how the realm of male physical culture could be presented as an instrument of social hygiene as well as an instrument of political struggle. In highlighting the purchase of these concerns in the interwar years, the book ultimately sheds light on the roots of Vichy's project for masculine regeneration after the military defeat of 1940.Less
This book is about interwar physical culture as a set of popular practices and as a field of ideas. It takes as its central subject the imagined failure of French manhood that was mapped out in this realm by physical culturist ‘experts’, often physicians. Their diagnosis of intertwined crises in masculine virility and national vitality was surprisingly widely shared across popular and political culture. Theirs was a hygienist and sometimes overtly eugenicist conception of physical exercise and national strength that suggests the persistence of fin-de-siècle preoccupations with biological degeneration and regeneration well beyond the First World War. The book traces these patterns of thinking about the male body across a seemingly disparate set of voices, all of whom argued that the physical training of men offered a salve to France's real and imagined woes. In interrogating a range of sources, from get-fit manuals and the popular press, to the mobilizing campaigns of popular politics on left and right and official debates about physical education, the book illustrates how the realm of male physical culture could be presented as an instrument of social hygiene as well as an instrument of political struggle. In highlighting the purchase of these concerns in the interwar years, the book ultimately sheds light on the roots of Vichy's project for masculine regeneration after the military defeat of 1940.
Kai-Wen Lan
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691156545
- eISBN:
- 9781400846016
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691156545.001.0001
- Subject:
- Mathematics, Geometry / Topology
By studying the degeneration of abelian varieties with PEL structures, this book explains the compactifications of smooth integral models of all PEL-type Shimura varieties, providing the logical ...
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By studying the degeneration of abelian varieties with PEL structures, this book explains the compactifications of smooth integral models of all PEL-type Shimura varieties, providing the logical foundation for several exciting recent developments. PEL-type Shimura varieties, which are natural generalizations of modular curves, are useful for studying the arithmetic properties of automorphic forms and automorphic representations, and they have played important roles in the development of the Langlands program. As with modular curves, it is desirable to have integral models of compactifications of PEL-type Shimura varieties that can be described in sufficient detail near the boundary, which this book explains in detail. Through the discussion, the book generalizes the theory of degenerations of polarized abelian varieties and the application of that theory to the construction of toroidal and minimal compactifications of Siegel moduli schemes over the integers (as developed by Mumford, Faltings, and Chai). The book is designed to be accessible to graduate students who have an understanding of schemes and abelian varieties.Less
By studying the degeneration of abelian varieties with PEL structures, this book explains the compactifications of smooth integral models of all PEL-type Shimura varieties, providing the logical foundation for several exciting recent developments. PEL-type Shimura varieties, which are natural generalizations of modular curves, are useful for studying the arithmetic properties of automorphic forms and automorphic representations, and they have played important roles in the development of the Langlands program. As with modular curves, it is desirable to have integral models of compactifications of PEL-type Shimura varieties that can be described in sufficient detail near the boundary, which this book explains in detail. Through the discussion, the book generalizes the theory of degenerations of polarized abelian varieties and the application of that theory to the construction of toroidal and minimal compactifications of Siegel moduli schemes over the integers (as developed by Mumford, Faltings, and Chai). The book is designed to be accessible to graduate students who have an understanding of schemes and abelian varieties.
