How the Earth Feels: Geological Fantasy in the Nineteenth-Century United States

In How the Earth Feels, Dana Luciano explores how geology influenced nineteenth-century US culture by fostering transformative conversations about the intersections between humans and the nonhuman world. She shows how geological fantasy transformed the science into a sensory experience and justified accounts of evolution that posited a modern, civilized, and Anglo-American whiteness as the pinnacle of human development.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 05 January 2024
Publisher: Duke University Press

Dana Luciano delves into the profound impacts of the emerging science of geology on nineteenth-century US culture in her book, "How the Earth Feels." Through a meticulous examination of early geological writings, Indigenous and settler accounts of earthquakes, African American antislavery literature, and various other sources, Luciano unveils how geology sparked transformative dialogues concerning the intricate intersections between humans and the nonhuman world. She demonstrates that comprehending the earth's history geologically necessitated confronting the dynamic nature of inorganic matter across vast temporal spans, challenging preconceived notions of human agency. In response to these seismic shifts, nineteenth-century Americans grappled with these changes through a fusion of fact and imagination, which Luciano labels as geological fantasy. Geological fantasy transformed the science into a sensory experience, fostering affective and even erotic connections to the earth's matter. Simultaneously, it was frequently employed to justify accounts of evolution that posited a modern, civilized, and Anglo-American whiteness as the ultimate pinnacle of human development. By tracing the interplay between geology and biopower, Luciano sheds light on how imagined connections with the earth shaped American dynamics of power, race, and colonization.

Weight: 384g
Dimension: 151 x 229 x 17 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781478025702