The Anatomy of Blackness: Science and Slavery in an Age of Enlightenment

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Synopsis
2012 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice MagazineThis 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.
Copyright:
2011

Book Details

Book Quality:
Publisher Quality
Book Size:
328 Pages
ISBN-13:
9781421402307
Related ISBNs:
9781421401508
Publisher:
Johns Hopkins University Press
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
JHUP
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
History, Nonfiction, Science, Literature and Fiction, Social Studies, Language Arts, Medicine
Submitted By:
Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.

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