LITTÉRATURE ET PRÉHISTOIRE, 1860-1930 : LE CHAÎNON MANQUANT, MIROIR DE L’HOMME SAUVAGE
Embargo until
2019-12-01
Date
2015-10-19
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Johns Hopkins University
Abstract
By focusing on the historical context of Darwinism and the anthropological parks from the mid-19th to the 20th century (1860-1930), this dissertation, entitled Literature and Prehistory: the Missing Link, a reflection of the Wild Man, explores the concept of the human missing link through its representations in French science fiction literature. Emerging from the French-created interdisciplinary science of Prehistory, a new trend of fictional works, often labeled Prehistoric novels, popularized the topic of human origins through narratives based on fossil studies, evolutionism, zoology and anthropology. With writers such as Rosny Aîné and Jules Verne, along with contemporary artists like Emmanuel Frémiet and scientists such as Charles Darwin, the concept of the Prehistoric human-animal became a popular phenomenon in parallel with the display of the Wild Man inside World Fairs and colonial exhibitions.
By analyzing the connections between the literary characterizations of the Prehistoric human-animal and the staging of the Savage in human exhibitions set by the development of key concepts such as Mankind, Animality, Exposition and Extinction, this research highlights how these ideological constructions overlapped through a unique system of understanding involving evolutionism, racial discrimination, colonialism, entertainment and technology. As visual display represents a key component in the transmission of thoughts, scientific theories and ideas regarding the theatricality of both the human-animal missing link and the contemporary Wild Man, a special emphasis on their iconography will be highlighted in order to make comparisons and reveal analogies through magazine illustrations, art work and paleontological reconstructions which contributed to the debates on human evolution while catching media attention. More than an exploration of a literary genre, this dissertation therefore deals with major cultural and political aspects related to the rise of archeology, the comprehension of the origins of Mankind and the speculations about its future.
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Keywords
Missing Link, Prehistoric novel