Monstrous ImaginationWhat woeful maternal fancy produced such a monster? This was once the question asked when a deformed infant was born. From classical antiquity through to the Enlightenment, the monstrous child bore witness to the fearsome power of the mother's imagination. What such a notion meant and how it reappeared, transformed, in the Romantic period are the questions explored in this book, a study of theories linking imagination, art and monstrous progeny. |
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Alicia Clary Ambroise Paré animal appears Aristotle artist Bablot beauty birthmarks body born canvas cause century Chamber of Horrors child conception creation Curtius Dareste dead death deformed desire Diderot dream E. F. Bleiler Edison Empedocles emphasis added epigenesis erased Ewald eyes father female fetus filiation Frankenstein Frenhofer genesis golem Gustav Meyrink Hadaly heredity hermaphrodism human idea illustrated imagination's imaginationist imitation imprint letter living Madame Tussaud's male Malebranche Marie Tussaud Mary Shelley mask maternal imagination metaphor Meyrink monster monstrosity monstrous births mother mother's imagination murder nature notes novel object origin painter painting Paracelsus Paré parental singularity Paris passion Percy Shelley Pernath Pierre Darmon portrait power of imagination pregnant procreation produce progeny quoted Renaissance representation reproduce resem resemblance role Romantic scene scientist Shelley's specific story strosities strous teratogeny teratology theory thought tion trans Venette Victor's Wax Museum woman womb women words writes wrote