Alchemical Construction of Genders in Anglo-american Fiction, 1799-1852: Visions of Utopia as Androgynous
| Author: | van Leeuwen, Evert Jan | |
| Year: | 2011 | |
| Pages: | 356 | |
| ISBN: | 0-7734-1532-7 978-0-7734-1532-4 | |
| Price: | $239.95 + shipping | |
| (Click the PayPal button to buy) | ||
This book examines unnoticed aspects of characters in both marginal and canonical works of American and English fiction.
Reviews
“…is able to demonstrate convincingly how literature thematises and evaluates a large number of intellectual and aesthetic traditions in order to establish alternatives to given historical situations and to project a meaningful future.” -Prof. Hans-Ulrich Mohn, Dresden University of Technology
“…succeeds in addressing contemporary concerns with gender, cultural, and transatlantic studies, making the book all the more attractive to today’s readers of American classics…”-Prof. Theo D’haen, Leuven University
“…it opens up new vistas on our understanding of transatlantic Romanticism, utopian movements, gender ideology, and the profession of authorship. All scholars of nineteenth-century literature should want in on the secrets this book contains”-Prof. Bryan Waterman, New York University
“…succeeds in addressing contemporary concerns with gender, cultural, and transatlantic studies, making the book all the more attractive to today’s readers of American classics…”-Prof. Theo D’haen, Leuven University
“…it opens up new vistas on our understanding of transatlantic Romanticism, utopian movements, gender ideology, and the profession of authorship. All scholars of nineteenth-century literature should want in on the secrets this book contains”-Prof. Bryan Waterman, New York University
Table of Contents
Foreword by Hans-Ulrich Mohr
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Alchemy in the transatlantic Romantic age
Romanticism and the Hermetic worldview
The alchemist in Romantic fantastic fiction
Chapter 1: Alchemy, Androgyny and Utopianism
Introduction
The Utopian impulse of alchemical transmutation
Alchemical androgyny
Gendered symbolism in alchemical texts
Romantic versus alchemical androgyny
New Romantics: Roszak's and Todd's androgynous ecotopia
Chapter 2: Alchemists - Self-Portraits and Interpretations
Introduction
Philalethes (Starkey): on the secret life of alchemists
Agrippa: the magician as divine prophet
Paracelsus: the alchemist as an elitist, benevolent sage br>
Sandivogius: Christian Utopian
The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross and other German pietists
The alchemists in Hermippus Redivivus (1744)
The Romantic alchemist: from mad scientist to outcast Utopian
Chapter 3: William Godwin and his Necromancers
Introduction
The spiritual sensibility of the rational anarchist
Lives of the Necromancers (1834) reconsidered
Godwin as necromancer
Weber's Sorcerer: an overlooked source for St Leon
Chapter 4: William Godwin's 5/ Leon (1799)
Introduction
The two stories of St Leon
Patriarchy, the family and alchemy in St Leon
Transforming the aristocratic patriarch into an alchemist
The marginalisation and persecution of the alchemist
Chapter 5: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818)
Introduction
Shelley-circle alchemy
Walton's ventriloquism of Victor's voice
Patriarchy, the family and alchemy in Frankenstein
From alchemist to mad, bad and dangerous scientist
Frankenstein's tragedy
Chapter 6: Edward Bulwer Lytton's Zanoni (1842)
Introduction
Bulwer: aristocrat, artist, politician, visionary
Manuscripts and character-types in Zanoni
Patriarchy, the family and alchemy in Zanoni
"philosophical alchemy": Zanoni's Utopian impulse
Zanoni's sacrifice
Chapter 7: George Lippard's Paul Ardenheim (1848)
Introduction
Lippard's alchemical revolution
Lippard and the Romantic tradition
Patriarchy, the family and alchemy in Paul Ardenheim
Transforming the Hermit into a revolutionary hero
The outcast Hermetic alchemist as a prophet of Utopia
Chapter 8: Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (1850)
Introduction
The alchemical romancer on the margins of Utopia
Framing Chillingworth' s tale with Hester Prynne' s story
Patriarchy, the family and alchemy in The Scarlet Letter
Transforming the benevolent alchemist into a jealous husband
The alchemist's demise and Hester's sacrifice
Chapter 9: Herman Melville's Pierre (1852)
Introduction
The ideology of gender polarisation in America's age of gold
Pierre and the Romantic alchemists
Patriarchy, the family and alchemy in Pierre
Transforming the amateur poet into an alchemical author
The rejection of the Soror Mystica - the death of the alchemist
Afterword: The Birth and Death of the Romantic Alchemist
Charles Brockden Brown's disciple of Hermes
Dr. Dolliver: Hawthorne's last and melancholy alchemist
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Alchemy in the transatlantic Romantic age
Romanticism and the Hermetic worldview
The alchemist in Romantic fantastic fiction
Chapter 1: Alchemy, Androgyny and Utopianism
Introduction
The Utopian impulse of alchemical transmutation
Alchemical androgyny
Gendered symbolism in alchemical texts
Romantic versus alchemical androgyny
New Romantics: Roszak's and Todd's androgynous ecotopia
Chapter 2: Alchemists - Self-Portraits and Interpretations
Introduction
Philalethes (Starkey): on the secret life of alchemists
Agrippa: the magician as divine prophet
Paracelsus: the alchemist as an elitist, benevolent sage br>
Sandivogius: Christian Utopian
The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross and other German pietists
The alchemists in Hermippus Redivivus (1744)
The Romantic alchemist: from mad scientist to outcast Utopian
Chapter 3: William Godwin and his Necromancers
Introduction
The spiritual sensibility of the rational anarchist
Lives of the Necromancers (1834) reconsidered
Godwin as necromancer
Weber's Sorcerer: an overlooked source for St Leon
Chapter 4: William Godwin's 5/ Leon (1799)
Introduction
The two stories of St Leon
Patriarchy, the family and alchemy in St Leon
Transforming the aristocratic patriarch into an alchemist
The marginalisation and persecution of the alchemist
Chapter 5: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818)
Introduction
Shelley-circle alchemy
Walton's ventriloquism of Victor's voice
From alchemist to mad, bad and dangerous scientist
Frankenstein's tragedy
Chapter 6: Edward Bulwer Lytton's Zanoni (1842)
Introduction
Bulwer: aristocrat, artist, politician, visionary
Manuscripts and character-types in Zanoni
Patriarchy, the family and alchemy in Zanoni
"philosophical alchemy": Zanoni's Utopian impulse
Zanoni's sacrifice
Chapter 7: George Lippard's Paul Ardenheim (1848)
Introduction
Lippard's alchemical revolution
Lippard and the Romantic tradition
Patriarchy, the family and alchemy in Paul Ardenheim
Transforming the Hermit into a revolutionary hero
The outcast Hermetic alchemist as a prophet of Utopia
Chapter 8: Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (1850)
Introduction
The alchemical romancer on the margins of Utopia
Framing Chillingworth' s tale with Hester Prynne' s story
Patriarchy, the family and alchemy in The Scarlet Letter
Transforming the benevolent alchemist into a jealous husband
The alchemist's demise and Hester's sacrifice
Chapter 9: Herman Melville's Pierre (1852)
Introduction
The ideology of gender polarisation in America's age of gold
Pierre and the Romantic alchemists
Patriarchy, the family and alchemy in Pierre
Transforming the amateur poet into an alchemical author
The rejection of the Soror Mystica - the death of the alchemist
Afterword: The Birth and Death of the Romantic Alchemist
Charles Brockden Brown's disciple of Hermes
Dr. Dolliver: Hawthorne's last and melancholy alchemist
Bibliography
Index