Wild science: radical politics and rejected knowledge in nineteenth-century fiction
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Abstract
This dissertation examines how writers of fiction in nineteenth-century America and Britain employed the discourse of pseudo-science, what I call rejected knowledge, to challenge the consolidating power of science and the state. During the mid- to late century, practitioners of mesmerism, spiritualism, and African American conjure not only captured the imaginations of millions, they also participated in radical social movements such as abolitionism, feminism, socialism, and late-century anti-racism and anti-imperialism. While historians of science have taken these knowledges more seriously, this dissertation considers formal, literary questions that historians do not address. I begin with Charles Dickens’s relationship with Michael Faraday and the mesmerist John Elliotson to show how his engagement in electromagnetic field theory led to a reform-minded but politically-restrained aesthetic. Next, I discuss the radical possibilities of Louisa May Alcott’s gothic stories—including work I have newly identified. Then I turn to conjure in the early Black novel, and the contradictory politics, science, and fiction of Martin R. Delany. I conclude with Pauline Hopkins’s genre-bending thrillers as arguments against racist disciplinization. Together, these chapters tell the story of a hardening scientific establishment and the roaring radicals who harnessed the literary potential of rejected knowledge against it.
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2024