Abstract
This chapter analyses late eighteenth-century accounts of animal electricity and their claims that electricity has vital properties. It investigates how, in the 1790s, this language is appropriated in political and literary accounts of the French Revolution. Electrical vitality is not just associated with radical political positions; rather, conservative writers like Edmund Burke exploit the mysterious, occult properties of electrical vitality to condemn revolutionary agitation. Radicals like Erasmus Darwin, Mary Wollstonecraft and John Thelwall use electrical language to describe reformist or creative activity but they too are disturbed by electricity’s resistance to analysis.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
