Romanticism, Origins, and the History of Heredity

Examining novels, studies on plant hybridization, treatises on animal breeding, and collections of anatomical monstrosities, Origins Matter delineates how romantic authors imagined the ramifications of emerging notions of heredity for the conceptualization of selfhood. Drawing on contemporary fields of biological inquiry, this book demonstrates that the kind of emphatic notion of selfhood for which Romanticism is famous was not threatened by considerations of determinism… (more)

Examining novels, studies on plant hybridization, treatises on animal breeding, and collections of anatomical monstrosities, Origins Matter delineates how romantic authors imagined the ramifications of emerging notions of heredity for the conceptualization of selfhood. Drawing on contemporary fields of biological inquiry, this book demonstrates that the kind of emphatic notion of selfhood for which Romanticism is famous was not threatened by considerations of determinism and evolution, but was in fact already a result of these very considerations.