Prosthetic Body Parts in Literature and Culture, 1832 to 1908
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Prosthetic Body Parts in Literature and Culture, 1832 to 1908 Submitted by Ryan Craig Sweet to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English, March 2016. This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. Ryan Sweet 1 [This page is intentionally left blank.] Ryan Sweet 2 Acknowledgements This thesis was generously funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. I am eternally grateful for their support. I also appreciate the support of the other funding bodies, including the British Society for Literature and Science, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Wellcome Trust, and the College of Humanities at the University of Exeter, whose funding has enabled me to discuss work from this project in a variety of stimulating venues. I would like to offer sincere thanks to my supervisors Dr Jason Hall and Dr Richard Noakes, whose astute comments and attention to detail have shaped this thesis into the piece that it is today. Perhaps more so than anyone else, I owe Dr Hall a lot of gratitude for his support. If it was not for his encouragement, interest in my ideas, and commitment to my professional development, I would not have pursued a postgraduate degree in the first place. I already look forward to working with Dr Hall on future projects. Professor Angelique Richardson and Professor Graeme Gooday made the examination of this thesis intellectually stimulating, rewarding, and enjoyable, so I would like to express my gratitude to them too. I would also like to thank my many colleagues at Exeter and beyond whose helpful suggestions have contributed to the development of this thesis. In particular, I would like to thank Dr Matt Hayler, Dr Paul Williams, Dr Corinna Wagner, Dr Vanessa Warne, Dr Karen Bourrier, Dr Jennifer Esmail, Professor Keir Waddington, Professor Mark Jackson, Professor Sue Zemka, Dr Emma Curry, Dr Helen Goodman, Professor Regenia Gagnier, Dr Paul Young, Professor John Plunkett, Dr Heather Tilley, Dr Kyriaki Hadjiafxendi, Dr Tricia Zakreski, Dr Joe Kember, Dr Claire Jones, Clare Ryan Sweet 3 Stainthorp, Mathilde Pavis, and Michelle Webb for their insights and recommendations. Finally, the completion of this thesis owes much to the help and support (physical, emotional, and financial) of my friends and family. Many thanks must go to my parents for their patience, encouragement, and unconditional love. Their belief in me has compelled me to persevere throughout my time in higher education. Also, their honesty and wise words have kept me grounded. For such, I must also thank my brothers, Glen and Marc, my Nan, and my extended family for not allowing me to get too lofty! For providing much needed distraction and companionship, I must thank my many great friends. Beadle, Pigeon, Pat, Gavlar, and Wei deserve special mention for always sticking by me. I must also thank my wonderful colleagues in Office 2 and the wider Humanities PhD community at Exeter. Over the past three-and-a-half years, I have been blessed to work in an environment that has allowed me to laugh, rant, and eat(!) without restraint. Finally, I would like to thank Jen, whose love has made the last stretch of the writing process not just tolerable but truly memorable. Ryan Sweet 4 Abstract Covering the years 1832 to 1908, a period that saw significant development in prosthetic technologies—in particular artificial legs, teeth, and eyes—this thesis explores representations of prostheses in British and American nineteenth- and early twentieth-century literature and culture. By considering prosthetic devices such as wooden legs and hook hands alongside artificial body parts that are often overlooked in terms of their status as prostheses, such as wigs and dentures, this thesis is the first to examine holistically the varied and complex attitudes displayed towards attempts to efface bodily loss in this period. Lennard J. Davis has shown how the concept of physical normalcy, against which bodily difference is defined, gained cultural momentum in the nineteenth century as bodily statistics emerged onto the scene (Enforcing Normalcy). This thesis builds on Davis’s work by considering other historical factors that contributed to the rise of physical normalcy, a concept that I show was buttressed by an understanding of the “healthy body” as “whole”. Like Davis, I also explore the denigration of physical difference that such a rise encouraged. The prosthesis industry, which saw tremendous development in the nineteenth century, cashed in on the increasing mandate for physical normalcy. However, as this thesis shows—and where it breaks new ground—while contemporary journalism and advertising often lauded the accomplishments of an emerging group of professional prosthesis makers, fiction tended to provide the other side of the picture, revealing the stereotypes, stigma, scepticism, inadequacies, and injustices attached to the use and dissemination of prosthetic devices. I argue that Victorian prosthesis narratives complicated the hegemony of normalcy that Davis has shown emerged in this period. Showing how representations of the prostheticised body were inflected Ryan Sweet 5 significantly by factors such as social class, gender, and age, this thesis argues that nineteenth-century prosthesis narratives, though presented in a predominantly ableist manner, challenged the dominance of physical completeness as they either questioned the logic of prostheticisation or presented non-normative subjects in threateningly powerful ways. Ryan Sweet 6 Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................ 1 Abstract .............................................................................................................. 4 Table of Figures ................................................................................................. 7 Introduction......................................................................................................... 9 1 Constructing and Complicating Physical Wholeness in Nineteenth-Century Britain and America .......................................................................................... 49 2 “The infurnal thing”: Autonomy and Ability in Narratives of Disabling, Self- Acting, and Weaponised Prostheses ................................................................ 93 3 Peg Legs and Prosthetic Promises: Limb Prosthesis and Social Mobility in Victorian Literature and Culture ...................................................................... 151 4 “A fine example of philosophy and pious resignation”: Gendered Means for Managing Physical Loss in Victorian and Edwardian Britain and America ..... 212 5 Signs of Decline? Prostheses and the Ageing Subject ............................ 261 Conclusion...................................................................................................... 328 Works Cited .................................................................................................... 335 Ryan Sweet 7 Table of Figures Figure 1.1 A comical cartoon of an old lady who is struck by a snowball, disarranging her false teeth. From Fun 29 (1879): 93. Courtesy of Gale Cengage Learning from their electronic resource Nineteenth-Century UK Periodicals (Series 1). ...................................................................................... 90 Figure 2.1 A light-hearted poem shows that it is a mistake to treat artificial hair as though it is real. From Illustrated Chips 10.248 (1895): 3. Courtesy of Gale Cengage Learning from their electronic resource Nineteenth-Century UK Periodicals Online (Series 1). ......................................................................... 112 Figure 2.2 A cartoon humorously explores the potential unusual benefits of using a peg leg. From Illustrated Chips 10.258 (1895): 5. Courtesy of Gale Cengage Learning from their electronic resource Nineteenth-Century UK Periodicals (Series 1). .................................................................................... 121 Figure 2.3 Six scenes narrating “The Cork Leg!”, a song by Jonathan Blewitt. Etching by Joe Lisle c. 1830. Image courtesy of the Wellcome Library via their electronic resource Wellcome Images. ........................................................... 144 Figure 4.1 An illustration of a male Marks-type artificial leg user digging with a shovel. From George E. Marks, A Treatise on Marks' Patent Artificial Limbs with Rubber Hands and Feet (New York, 1888), p. 346. Courtesy of Library of Congress RD756 .M34 1888. ......................................................................... 226 Figure 4.2 An illustration of a female Marks-type artificial leg user demonstrating the mimetic capacities of her prosthesis. From George E. Marks, A Treatise on Marks' Patent Artificial Limbs with Rubber Hands and Feet (New York, 1888), p. 335. Courtesy of Library of Congress RD756 .M34 1888. ..... 113 Figure 5.1 A lady retiring to bed and ordering her maid to look after her artificial aids to beauty (wig, teeth, glass eye etc.). Coloured etching by P. Roberts after G.M Woodward c. 1807. Image courtesy of the Wellcome Library via their electronic