Table Of ContentPalgrave Studies in Literature,
Science and Medicine
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Dept. of English and Creative Writing
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Alice Jenkins
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MonikaPietrzak-Franger
Syphilis in Victorian
Literature
and Culture
Medicine, Knowledge and the Spectacle
of Victorian Invisibility
MonikaPietrzak-Franger
InstitutfürAnglistikundAmerikanistik
UniversitätHamburg
Hamburg,Germany
PalgraveStudiesinLiterature,ScienceandMedicine
ISBN978-3-319-49534-7 ISBN978-3-319-49535-4(eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-49535-4
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2017934332
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Coverillustration:GeorgeHenryFox,SyphilodermaTuberculosis.InGeorgeHenryFox,
Photographic Illustrations of Cutaneous Syphilis. New York: E.B. Treat, 1881. Plate XXV.
ReproducedfromtheWellcomeLibrary.
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A
CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This project has been an enterprise that took place over six years in
institutions across Europe and the United States. Along the way, I have
accrued many debts of gratitude to the individuals, organizations and
funding bodies without whom the work would have been impossible.
Research grants awarded by the University of Siegen allowed me to con-
ductpreliminaryresearchintheUK.Agenerous2011–2012Volkswagen
Fellowship at the Department of Anthropology at the Washington
University in St Louis gave me invaluable time and resources to explore
a number of medical collections across the United States. Here I also
benefited immensely from the encouragement and inspiration provided
bymymentorCarolynSargentaswellasthecolleaguesinthedepartment
andfromthe support of Paul MichaelLützeler.
My debts to the archivists and librarians are extensive. I am grateful to
ChristineRuggere,curatoroftheHistoricalCollectionattheInstituteofthe
History ofMedicineatthe JohnsHopkinsUniversity, for herassistancein
theworkonJonathanHutchinson’scollection.AllthestaffoftheHaslemere
EducationalMuseum,ColinGaleattheBethlemRoyalHospitalArchives,
ElisabethBranderattheBeckerMedicalLibraryinStLouis,SarahPearson
at the Hunterian Museum, the librarians and archivists of the Wellcome
Library,theBritishLibrary,theNationalArchives,theNationalLibraryof
Medicine in Bethesda, USA, the London Metropolitan Archives and the
Women’sLibrarywereunfailinglyhelpful.
I owe the genesis of this book to Tomek Śpiewak, who presented his
work on Wyspiański’s art and biography in our doctoral colloquium and
thanks to whom I realized the abundance of visual materials devoted to
v
vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
the disease. Throughout this project, colleagues and mentors at the
University of Siegen (Uta Fenske, Marcel Hartwig, Anja Müller, Kerstin
Schmidt, Angela Schwarz, Juliane Stevens, Pia Wiegmink, Gregor
Schuhen), TU Braunschweig (Sarah Ablett, Rüdiger Heinze, Jenny
Jakisch, Nora Pleßke and Maria Marcsek-Fuchs) and at the University of
Hamburg (Ute Berns, Astrid Böger, Peter Hühn, Jan Kucharzewski,
Stephan Karschay, H.-P. Rodenberg, Susanne Rohr and Susanne Rupp)
havebeenconsistentlysupportive–Ithankthemforalltheconversations,
encouragementandhelp.IhavebeenluckytobenefitfromEckartVoigt’s
constant generosity and advice and from the invaluable comments and
advice of many colleagues who listened to parts of the book given as
lectures in its formative stages. I profited from the advice of Ann
Heilmann, Martha Stoddard Holmes, Marie-Luise Kohlke, Angelique
Richardson, Martin Middeke, Antonija Primorac, Christine Ferguson,
PaulYoungandMaryWilsonCarpenter.Iamthankfultomanycolleagues
in visual culture studies and medical humanities who have supported and
encouraged me on the way: Susanne Scholz, Peter Leese, Ludmila
Jordanova, Paula Treichler, Heinz-Peter Schmiedebach. This book bears
the imprint of many other colleagues whose work I have been avidly
reading: Gillian Beer, Mike Ball, Isabel Armstrong, Kate Flint, Philippa
Levine,Sander L.Gilman andPamelaGilbert.
Finally,Iamparticularlygratefultocolleagueswhosparedtimetoread
parts of the manuscript: Eckart Voigts, Stefan Brandt, Angelica Zeller-
Michaelson, Marcel Hartwig, Franziska Bomski, Tim Peetz, Stefan
Schenk-Haupt, Marlene Schurig and Alina Lange. I am also thankful to
Ben Doyle for commissioning the book and to Manoj Mishra, the whole
Palgrave/Springerteamforsupportingmeinthefinalstagesofmanuscript
preparation.
For their encouragement and guidance, I am indebted to my family,
friendsandespeciallytomyhusband,RainerFranger,forhisunremitting
support.
A T B
BOUT HIS OOK
ShortDescription of the Book
Taking as a point of departure the culture of the European fin-de-siècle,
Syphilis in Victorian Literature and Culture addresses the evident but
unexplored intertwining of visibility and invisibility in the discourses
around syphilis. A rethinking of the disease with reference to its ambig-
uous status and the ways of seeing that it generated helps reconsider the
network of socio-cultural and political interrelations which were nego-
tiated through syphilis, thereby also raising larger questions about its
functionintheconstructionofindividual,nationalandimperialidentities.
Syphilis in Victorian Literature and Culture is the first large-scale inter-
disciplinarystudyofsyphilisinlateVictorianBritainwhosesignificancelies
in its unprecedented attention to the multimedia and multi-discursive
evocations of syphilis. An examination of the heterogeneous sources that
it offers, many of which have up to this point escaped critical attention,
makes it possible to reveal the complex and poly-ideological reasons for
the activation of syphilis imagery and its symbolic function in late
Victorianculture.
Even shorter descriptionof the Book
The book offers a synchronic and systematic view of the multi-media
evocations of syphilis in the late nineteenth century and of its cultural
significanceagainst thebackground of larger Europeantrends.
vii
C
ONTENTS
1 Introduction:Waysof Seeing 1
Syphilis and Its(In)Visibility 4
CriticalBlind Spots 11
Peripatetic Viewing 14
Notes 23
2 AetiologyandEtymology:Concepts, Bodies,Media 27
Syphilis Concepts 29
Discursive-Material Syphilis 36
Syphilis-in-Media 44
Media Productionand Dissemination ofKnowledge
about Syphilis:A CaseStudy 52
Reframing Grünewald: TheRhetoricsof (Icono)Texts 64
Notes 67
3 RecognizingSyphilis: PornographicKnowledgeandthe
Politicsof Explanation 71
MedicalSightingsand Protective Narratives 74
Professional andCivic Narratives inthe Polyclinic 78
Self-fashioning 88
Unhealthy Sights and theConspiracy ofSilence 91
Feminist and NewWoman Voices onSyphilis 92
Wagesof Ignorance:Domestic MedicineManuals 95
ix
x CONTENTS
PublicAnatomyMuseums: (Cautionary)Tales of Moral
Perditionand FinancialProfit 102
RecognizingSyphilis 112
PornographicKnowledge 118
Notes 121
4 FacingPathology:Modern(Re)Production of Difference 127
The Poeticsand Politics ofSyphilis Typologies 130
Facing Syphilis:Visual Typologies 132
Shifting Appearances:From Women’sBodies
to Contagious Touch 144
The Bodyof Consumption/ConsumptiveBodies 152
Syphilis forPublicConsumption 153
The Pleasuresof theMarketplace 1:Modernist Aesthetics 162
The Pleasuresof theMarketplace 2:Hysteria and
Individuality 167
The Power ofMimicry 177
Notes 179
5 Prophylaxisand Treatment: Geopolitics
ofDifferentiation 185
Mapping the Pox-RiddenWorld 188
Geographies in Flux: Space,Syphilis andSoldiers’Mobility 190
Coloniesand Cordons Sanitaires 191
Distance,Movement and Care 199
Containment atthe Border 203
Lock Hospitals:NodalPoints of (In)Visibility 208
Spaces of Isolationand Invisibility 209
Sites ofReformation and Healing 218
The Geopolitics ofRepresentation 224
Notes 226
6 (Eugenic)Utopias: National FutureandIndividual
Suffering 233
Heredity,VictorianChildhoodandSpectresof(De/Re)Generation 238
Hereditary Syphilis,MedicalUncertainties and Popular
Fears 240
