The anatomy of blackness : science & slavery in an age of Enlightenment /
Curran, Andrew S.
The anatomy of blackness : science & slavery in an age of Enlightenment / Andrew S. Curran. - Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, (c)2011. - 1 online resource (xiv, 310 pages) : illustrations
Includes bibliographies and index.
Introduction: Tissue samples in the land of conjecture -- Paper trails: writing the African, 1450-1750 -- Sameness and science, 1730-1750 -- The problem of difference: philosophes and the processing of African "ethnography, " 1750-1755 -- The natural history of slavery, 1770-1802 -- Coda: black Africans and the enlightenment legacy.
"This volume examines the Enlightenment-era textualization of the Black African in European thought. Andrew S. Curran rewrites the history of blackness by replicating the practices of eighteenth-century readers. Surveying French and European travelogues, natural histories, works of anatomy, pro- and anti-slavery tracts, philosophical treatises, and literary texts, Curran shows how naturalists and philosophes drew from travel literature to discuss the perceived problem of human blackness within the nascent human sciences, describes how a number of now-forgotten anatomists revolutionized the era's understanding of black Africans, and charts the shift of the slavery debate from the moral, mercantile, and theological realms toward that of the 'black body' itself. In tracing this evolution, he shows how blackness changed from a mere descriptor in earlier periods into a thing to be measured, dissected, handled, and often brutalized. Penetrating and comprehensive, The Anatomy of Blackness shows that, far from being a monolithic idea, eighteenth-century Africanist discourse emerged out of a vigorous, varied dialogue that involved missionaries, slavers, colonists, naturalists, anatomists, philosophers, and Africans themselves."--Publisher's description
9781421402307
015897505 Uk
Black people in literature.
Travel writing--History and criticism.
Black people--Race identity.
French literature--History.--19th century
French literature--History.--18th century
Electronic Books.
PQ265 / .A538 2011
The anatomy of blackness : science & slavery in an age of Enlightenment / Andrew S. Curran. - Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, (c)2011. - 1 online resource (xiv, 310 pages) : illustrations
Includes bibliographies and index.
Introduction: Tissue samples in the land of conjecture -- Paper trails: writing the African, 1450-1750 -- Sameness and science, 1730-1750 -- The problem of difference: philosophes and the processing of African "ethnography, " 1750-1755 -- The natural history of slavery, 1770-1802 -- Coda: black Africans and the enlightenment legacy.
"This volume examines the Enlightenment-era textualization of the Black African in European thought. Andrew S. Curran rewrites the history of blackness by replicating the practices of eighteenth-century readers. Surveying French and European travelogues, natural histories, works of anatomy, pro- and anti-slavery tracts, philosophical treatises, and literary texts, Curran shows how naturalists and philosophes drew from travel literature to discuss the perceived problem of human blackness within the nascent human sciences, describes how a number of now-forgotten anatomists revolutionized the era's understanding of black Africans, and charts the shift of the slavery debate from the moral, mercantile, and theological realms toward that of the 'black body' itself. In tracing this evolution, he shows how blackness changed from a mere descriptor in earlier periods into a thing to be measured, dissected, handled, and often brutalized. Penetrating and comprehensive, The Anatomy of Blackness shows that, far from being a monolithic idea, eighteenth-century Africanist discourse emerged out of a vigorous, varied dialogue that involved missionaries, slavers, colonists, naturalists, anatomists, philosophers, and Africans themselves."--Publisher's description
9781421402307
015897505 Uk
Black people in literature.
Travel writing--History and criticism.
Black people--Race identity.
French literature--History.--19th century
French literature--History.--18th century
Electronic Books.
PQ265 / .A538 2011