Details

The Victorian aquarium

Literary discussions on nature, culture, and science
Interventions: Rethinking the Nineteenth Century

von: Silvia Granata, Andrew Smith
134,99 €
Verlag:	Manchester University Press
Format:	EPUB
Veröffentl.:	27.04.2021
ISBN/EAN:	9781526151957
Sprache:	englisch
Anzahl Seiten:	240

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Beschreibungen

Titelbeschreibung

The Victorian aquarium explores the vogue for home tanks that spread through Great Britain around the middle of the nineteenth century. This book offers an example of how the study of a particular object can be used to address a broad spectrum of issues. The Victorian aquarium became in fact a point of intersection between scientific, technological and cultural trends; it engaged with issues of class, gender, nationality and inter-species relations; it drew together home décor and ideals of domesticity, travel and tourism, exciting discoveries in marine biology and tensions between competing views of science; it also marked an important moment in the development of a burgeoning environmental awareness. Through the analysis of a wide range of sources, including aquarium manuals, articles and fictional works,
The Victorian aquarium unearths the historical significance of nineteenth-century tanks, reconstructing their far-ranging cultural resonance.

Titelkurzbeschreibung

Through the analysis of a wide range of sources, which include aquarium manuals, articles and fictional works,
The Victorian aquarium investigates the nineteenth-century vogue for home tanks; the book retraces the development and decline of the ‘aquarium mania’, exploring both its historical specificity and its far-ranging cultural resonance.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction 1 The marine aquarium in context 2 To the seaside and into the abyss 3 Beauty and the fish 4 The science of a miniature sea 5 Weird creatures in the home Conclusion Index

Autorenportrait

Silvia Granata is lecturer in English Literature at the University of Pavia in Italy

Flap copy

This book explores the vogue for home aquaria that spread through Great Britain around the middle of the nineteenth century. The marine tank, perfected and commercialised in the early 1850s, was advertised as a marvel of modernity, a source of endless entertainment, and a tool providing useful and edifying knowledge; it was meant to surprise, bringing a profoundly unfamiliar experience right to the heart of the home and providing a vista on the submarine world, at the time still largely unknown. Thanks to an interdisciplinary approach, this book offers an example of how the study of a specific object can be used to address a broad spectrum of issues: the Victorian home tank became in fact a site of intersection between scientific, technological, and cultural trends; it engaged with issues of class, gender, nationality, and inter-species relations, drawing together home décor and ideals of domesticity, travel and tourism, exciting discoveries in marine biology, and emerging tensions between competing views of science; due to the close connection between tank keeping and seaside studies, it also marked an important moment in the development of a burgeoning environmental awareness. Through the analysis of a wide range of sources, including aquarium manuals, articles in the periodical press, and fictional works,
The Victorian aquarium unearths the historical significance of a resonant object arguing that, for Victorians, the home tank was both a mirror and a window: it opened views on the underwater world, while reflecting the knowledge, assumptions, and preoccupations of its owners.