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The Wild Girl, Natural Man, and the Monster by Julia V Douthwaite
The Wild Girl, Natural Man, and the Monster by Julia V Douthwaite
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The Wild Girl, Natural Man, and the Monster

Dangerous Experiments in the Age of Enlightenment
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Description

This study looks at the lives of the most famous "wild children" of eighteenth-century Europe, showing how they open a window onto European ideas about the potential and perfectibility of mankind. Julia V. Douthwaite recounts reports of feral children such as the wild girl of Champagne (captured in 1731 and baptized as Marie-Angélique Leblanc), offering a fascinating glimpse into beliefs about the difference between man and beast and the means once used to civilize the uncivilized. A variety of educational experiments failed to tame these feral children by the standards of the day. After telling their stories, Douthwaite turns to literature that reflects on similar experiments to perfect human subjects. Her examples range from utopian schemes for progressive childrearing to philosophical tales of animated statues, from revolutionary theories of regenerated men to Gothic tales of scientists run amok. Encompassing thinkers such as Rousseau, Sade, Defoe, and Mary Shelley, Douthwaite shows how the Enlightenment conceived of mankind as an infinitely malleable entity, first with optimism, then with apprehension. Exposing the darker side of eighteenth-century thought, she demonstrates how advances in science gave rise to troubling ethical concerns, as parents, scientists, and politicians tried to perfect mankind with disastrous results.

Author Biography:

Julia V. Douthwaite is associate professor of French and comparative literature at the University of Notre Dame. She is the author of Exotic Women; Literary Heroines and Cultural Strategies in Ancien Regime France.
Release date NZ
June 15th, 2002
Audiences
  • Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
  • Professional & Vocational
  • Undergraduate
Pages
322
Dimensions
15x23x2
ISBN-13
9780226160566
Product ID
6303135

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Exotic Women by Julia V Douthwaite
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Books >
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Humanities >
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European history >
European history: c 1750 to c 1900
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European history
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