Article
| Title: | Addressing the age-old question of human perfectibility in Daniel Defoe's Mere Nature Delineated: or, a Body without a Soul |
| Author: | |
| Source document: | Brno studies in English. 2013, vol. 39, iss. 1, pp. [199]-209 |
| Extent: | [199]-209 |
| ISSN: | 0524-6881 (print); 1805-0867 (online) |
| DOI: | 10.5817/BSE2013-1-11 |
| Type: | Article (English) |
| Stable URL: | http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/129159 |
| License: |
PDF
Abstract(s):
This article discusses the concern with the improvement or perfectibility of human nature in eighteenth-century English society and the necessity of its encouragement considering the prevalence of human degeneration at different levels: intellectual, moral, social, political or cultural. After a brief presentation of the philosophical and literary background of the perfectibility debates, we look into Daniel Defoe's literary representation of human improvement and degeneration in his Mere Nature Delineated: or, a Body without a Soul (1726). Defoe's pamphlet had its roots in a real case of human imperfection or degradation, namely in Peter the Wild Boy's story, which gave him the opportunity to criticize his contemporaries' vices and failures.
Keywords:
feral child; noble savage; the fool; perfectibility; improvement; culture; nature; political satire
References:
[1] Arbuthnot, John and Jonathan Swift (1726) The Most Wonderful Wonder that Ever Appeared to the Wonder of the British Nation, available at http://www.archive.org/stream/lifeworksofjohna00aitk#page/474/mode/2up, accessed May 1, 2012.
[2] Defoe, Daniel (1726) Mere Nature Delineated: or, a Body without a Soul. Being Observations upon the Young Forester Lately Brought to Town from Germany. With Suitable Applications. Also, a Brief Dissertation upon the Usefulness and Necessity of Fools, whether Political or Natural. Printed for T. Warner, at the Black Boy, available at http://archive.org/details/merenaturedeline-00defo, accessed April 2, 2012.
[3] Culea, Mihaela (2010) " Breeding. A Partial History of the Eighteenth Century. By Jenny Davidson". The European Legacy. Toward New Paradigms 15 (5), 669–670, available at http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cele20/15/5.
[4] Culea, Mihaela (2012) " Defoe's Writings and Manliness: Contrary Men. By Stephen H. Gregg". The European Legacy: Toward New Paradigms 17 (4), 540–541, available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10848770.2012.686976. | DOI 10.1080/10848770.2012.686976
[5] Davidson, Jenny (2009) Breeding: A Partial History of the Eighteenth Century. New York: Columbia University Press.
[6] Fudge, Erica (ed.) (2004) Renaissance Beasts: Of Animals, Humans and Other Wonderful Creatures. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
[7] Lamb, Jonathan (2004) " Review of: Julia V. Douthwaite, The Wild Girl, Natural Man and the Monster: Dangerous Experiments in the Age of Enlightenment". Eighteenth-Century Fiction 17 (1), 132, available at http://digitalcommons.mcmaster.ca/ecf/vol17/iss1/7, accessed April 24, 2012.
[8] McFarland, Sarah E. and Ryan Hediger (eds.) (2009) Animals and Agency: An Interdisciplinary Exploration. Leiden: Koninklije Brill, Hotei Publishing.
[9] Nash, Richard (2003) Wild Enlightenment: the Borders of Human Identity in the Eighteenth Century. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press.
[10] Payne, Michael and Jessica Rae Barbera (eds.) (2010) A Dictionary of Cultural and Critical Theory. 2nd edition. Malden, MA, USA and Oxford UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
[11] Shinagel, Michael (1968) Daniel Defoe and Middle-Class Gentility. Cambridge, Massachusetts, MA: Harvard UP.
[12] Willey, Basil (1986) The Eighteenth Century Background. Studies in the Idea of Nature in the Thought of the Period. London and New York: Ark Paperbacks.
[13] Kennedy, Maev (2011) " Peter the Wild Boy's Condition Revealed 200 Years after His Death". The Guardian, March 20, 2011. http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/mar/20/peter-wildboy-condition-revealed, accessed June 5, 2012.
[14] Lane, Megan (2011) " Who Was Peter the Wild Boy?" BBC News Magazine, August 8, 2011 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14215171, accessed June 28, 2012.
[15] Moorhouse, Roger (2010) " Peter the Wild Boy". History Today 60 (4) http://www.historytoday.com/roger-moorhouse/peter-wild-boy, accessed May 1, 2012.
[16] National Geographic Documentary (2009) " Is It Real? Feral Children". http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xegxt7_is-it-real-natgeo-feral-children-1_shortfilms, accessed April 1, 2012.
[17] Worsley, Lucy " Peter the Wild Boy". http://www.lucyworsley.com/courtiers/peter-the-wild-boy.html, accessed May 1, 2012.
