This book explains the elimination of maternal characters in American, British, French, and German literature before 1890 by examining motherless creations: Pygmalions statue, Frankensteins creature, homunculi, automata, androids, golems, and steam men.
Introduction: Fictionality and Artificial Life
Part One, The Rationale for Creating Life without Mothers, 1650-1800
Chapter 1, Fables about the Birthing Body in the Long Eighteenth Century
Chapter 2, Automaton: The Analogy of Man a Machine in Descartes and Obstetrics
Chapter 3, Pygmalion as Creator of Artificial Life
Part Two, Motherless Children in Literature of the Romantic Era, 1800-1832
Chapter 4, Homunculus and the Search for Immortality in Goethes Faust
Chapter 5, Olympia and the Romance Scam in Hoffmanns The Sandman
Chapter 6, The Creature, his Companion, and the Singularity in Shelleys Frankenstein
Chapter 7, The Golem: A Reflection on the Purpose of Artificial Life
Part Three, Making Artificial Slaves in French and American Literature, 1850-1890
Chapter 8, The Sex Bot Hadaly in Villierss Tomorrows Eve
Chapter 9, Constructing Identity through the Iron Slave in Melvilles The Bell-Tower
Chapter 10, White Supremacy in Elliss The Steam Man
Conclusion
Bibliography
Illustrations
This book explains the elimination of maternal characters in American, British, French, and German literature before 1890 by examining motherless creations: Pygmalions statue, Frankensteins creature, homunculi, automata, androids, golems, and steam men. These beings typify what is now calló«
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