The Enlightenment Cyborg : : A History of Communications and Control in the Human Machine, 1660-1830 / / Allison Muri.

For many cultural theorists, the concept of the cyborg - an organism controlled by mechanic processes - is firmly rooted in the post-modern, post-industrial, post-Enlightenment, post-nature, post-gender, or post-human culture of the late twentieth century. Allison Muri argues, however, that there is...

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Superior document:Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
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Place / Publishing House:Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2016]
©2007
Year of Publication:2016
Language:English
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Physical Description:1 online resource (240 p.)
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Other title:Frontmatter --
Contents --
Acknowledgments --
1. Introduction --
2. Matter, Mechanism, and the Soul --
3. Some Contexts for Human Machines and the Body Politic: Early Modern / Postmodern Government and Feedback --
4. The Man-Machine: Communications, Circulations, and Commerce --
5. The Woman-Machine: Techno-lust and Techno-reproduction --
6. Cyborg Conceptions: Bodies, Texts, and the Future of Human Spirit --
Notes --
References --
Illustration Credits --
Index
Summary:For many cultural theorists, the concept of the cyborg - an organism controlled by mechanic processes - is firmly rooted in the post-modern, post-industrial, post-Enlightenment, post-nature, post-gender, or post-human culture of the late twentieth century. Allison Muri argues, however, that there is a long and rich tradition of art and philosophy that explores the equivalence of human and machine, and that the cybernetic organism as both a literary figure and an anatomical model has, in fact, existed since the Enlightenment.In The Enlightenment Cyborg, Muri presents cultural evidence - in literary, philosophical, scientific, and medical texts - for the existence of mechanically steered, or 'cyber' humans in the works seventeenth- and eighteenth-century thinkers. Muri illustrates how Enlightenment exploration of the notion of the 'man-machine' was inextricably tied to ideas of reproduction, government, individual autonomy, and the soul, demonstrating an early connection between scientific theory and social and political thought. She argues that late twentieth-century social and political movements, such as socialism, feminism, and even conservatism, are thus not unique in their use of the cyborg as a politicized trope.The Enlightenment Cyborg establishes a dialogue between eighteenth-century studies and cyborg art and theory, and makes a significant and original contribution to both of these fields of inquiry.
Format:Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
ISBN:9781442684904
9783110490954
DOI:10.3138/9781442684904
Access:restricted access
Hierarchical level:Monograph
Statement of Responsibility: Allison Muri.