Freud's menagerie: our atavistic sense of self -- Late modern morphologies: scientific empiricism and photographic representation -- "Wolf-wolf!"; narrating the science of desire -- Atavistic time: Tarzan, Dr. Fu Manchu, and the serial dime novel -- Unnatural selection: mothers, eugenic feminism, and regeneration narratives -- An atavistic embrace: ape, gorilla, wolf, man
Summary
The post-Darwinian theory of atavism forecasted obstacles to human progress in the reappearance of throwback physical or cultural traits after several generations of absence. In this original and stimulating work, Dana Seitler explores the ways in which modernity itself is an atavism, shaping a historical and theoretical account of its dramatic rise and impact on Western culture and imagination. Examining late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century science, fiction, and photography, Seitler discovers how modern thought oriented itself around this paradigm of obsolescence and return--one that s
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 243-283) and index
