Animal Magnetism as Ecocriticism for a Time of Pandemic
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12878712 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kari Weil (0000-0002-6183-6595, Wesleyan University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 126-135 |
| Publication date | 2021-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Contemporary French and Francophone Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1740-9292 • E-ISSN: 1740-9306 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/17409292.2021.1865057 |
| OpenAlex | W3134988742 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 2 |
Towards the end of the eighteenth century the Austrian physician, Anton Mesmer, posited the existence of a universal fluid that surrounds, penetrates, and connects all bodies, much like the interplanetary forces of attraction and repulsion. The correct flow of this fluid, he believed, was responsible for both physical and psychic health and he developed his practice of animal magnetism as a therapy for those who experienced the ranging symptoms of its blockage. Because the fluid’s existence could not be proven, however, the practice was condemned and Mesmer was banished from Paris. In this paper, I argue that the conceptions behind this invisible fluid and the notions of human-animality and material sympathy it draws upon, are prescient for ecocriticism today. Mesmer and his followers posited the permeability of bodies to flows of affection and infection that put them in necessary communication with other bodies as with their environments. As we know from our own pandemic, such contact is risky. Animal magnetism shows that it is also necessary for healing and for life itself
Aesthetics · Affection · Epistemology · Psychic · Psychoanalysis · Sympathy · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Medicine · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology
| Citations per year | 0.33 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2023 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |