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Human Tissue in the Realist Novel, 1850-1895

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  • © 2023

Overview

Authors:
  1. Ben Moore

    1. University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

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  • Takes up debates around the place of the human in Victorian literature
  • Brings together discourses of realism and the Anthropocene
  • Addresses tissues and layering in the period 1850-1895

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Table of contents (5 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
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  2. Introduction: Human Tissue

    • Ben Moore
    Pages 1-16

  3. Becoming-evolutionary?: Animal Transformations in Alton Locke

    • Ben Moore
    Pages 17-38

  4. Allegorical Realism and the Figure of the Human in The Mill on the Floss and Middlemarch

    • Ben Moore
    Pages 39-66

  5. Zola, Moore, Lee and the Vivisectional Novel

    • Ben Moore
    Pages 67-89

  6. Conclusion: The Primitive Tissue of Realism

    • Ben Moore
    Pages 91-94

  7. Back Matter

    Pages 95-100
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Keywords

About this book

This Pivot engages with current debates about anthropocentrism and the Anthropocene to propose a reappraisal of the realist novel in the second half of the nineteenth century. Through three case studies, it argues for ‘human tissue’ as a conceptual tool for reading that brings together biology, literature and questions of layering. This new approach is shown to be especially salient to the Victorian period, when the application of ‘tissue’ to biology first emerges. The book is distinctive in bringing together theoretical concerns around realism and the Anthropocene – two major topics in literary criticism – and presenting a new methodology to approach this conjunction, demonstrated through original readings of Charles Kingsley, George Eliot, and Emile Zola and two English-language writers he influenced (George Moore and Vernon Lee).

Reviews

“Human Tissue in the Realist Novel, 1850–1895 is a short study of the links between human tissue, human subjectivity, and forms of realism. … The result is an argument that often feels like it is reinventing the wheel, even while some theorical approaches, especially those relating to climate, feel innovative and inspiring.” (Andrew Mangham, English Studies, August 23, 2023)

Authors and Affiliations

  • University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Ben Moore

About the author

Ben Moore is Assistant Professor in English Literature at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 

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