The Science of Character: Human Objecthood and the Ends of Victorian Realism

The Science of Character explores how Victorian novelists used fiction to theorize how character forms, arguing that literature became a science in its commitment to uncovering the laws governing physical and affective life.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 304 pages
Publication date: 11 January 2022
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press

In 1843, the Victorian philosopher John Stuart Mill proposed the establishment of a new science, "the science of the formation of character." While Mills's proposal did not become a scientific practice, S. Pearl Brilmyer argues that it found its true home in the realism of the Victorian period. Novelists like George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, and Olive Schreiner used narrative to explore how traits and behaviors in organisms emerge and develop, and how aesthetic features, such as shapes, colors, and gestures, come to take on cultural meaning through categories like race and sex. These authors engaged with materialist science and philosophy, transforming character from the liberal notion of an individual's inner truth into a materially determined figuration produced through shifts in the boundaries between the body's inside and outside. Brilmyer argues that literature became a science in its commitment to uncovering, through a fictional staging of realistic events, the laws governing physical and affective life.

The Science of Character also makes a bold new claim for the power of the literary by showing how Victorian novelists used fiction to theorize how character forms. In 1843, the Victorian philosopher John Stuart Mill proposed the establishment of a new science, "the science of the formation of character." While Mills's proposal did not become a scientific practice, S. Pearl Brilmyer argues that it found its true home in the realism of the Victorian period. Novelists like George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, and Olive Schreiner used narrative to explore how traits and behaviors in organisms emerge and develop, and how aesthetic features, such as shapes, colors, and gestures, come to take on cultural meaning through categories like race and sex. These authors engaged with materialist science and philosophy, transforming character from the liberal notion of an individual's inner truth into a materially determined figuration produced through shifts in the boundaries between the body's inside and outside. Brilmyer argues that literature became a science in its commitment to uncovering, through a fictional staging of realistic events, the laws governing physical and affective life.

The Science of Character also makes a bold new claim for the power of the literary by showing how Victorian novelists used fiction to theorize how character forms. In 1843, the Victorian philosopher John Stuart Mill proposed the establishment of a new science, "the science of the formation of character." While Mills's proposal did not become a scientific practice, S. Pearl Brilmyer argues that it found its true home in the realism of the Victorian period. Novelists like George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, and Olive Schreiner used narrative to explore how traits and behaviors in organisms emerge and develop, and how aesthetic features, such as shapes, colors, and gestures, come to take on cultural meaning through categories like race and sex. These authors engaged with materialist science and philosophy, transforming character from the liberal notion of an individual's inner truth into a materially determined figuration produced through shifts in the boundaries between the body's inside and outside. Brilmyer argues that literature became a science in its commitment to uncovering, through a fictional staging of realistic events, the laws governing outside physical and affective life.

The Science of Character also makes a bold new claim for the power of the literary by showing how Victorian novelists used fiction to theorize how character forms. In 1843, the Victorian philosopher John Stuart Mill proposed the establishment of a new science, "the science of the formation of character." While Mills's proposal did not become a scientific practice, S. Pearl Brilmyer argues that it found its true home in the realism of the Victorian period. Novelists like George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, and Olive Schreiner used narrative to explore how traits and behaviors in organisms emerge and develop, and how aesthetic features, such as shapes, colors, and gestures, come to take on cultural meaning through categories like race and sex. These authors engaged with materialist science and philosophy, transforming character from the liberal notion of an individual's inner truth into a materially determined figuration produced through shifts in the boundaries between the body's inside and outside. Brilmyer argues that literature became a science in its commitment to uncovering, through a fictional staging of realistic events, the laws governing physical and affective life.

The Science of Character also makes a bold new claim for the power of the literary by showing how Victorian novelists used fiction to theorize how character forms. In 1843, the Victorian philosopher John Stuart Mill proposed the establishment of a new science, "the science of the formation of character." While Mills's proposal did not become a scientific practice, S. Pearl Brilmyer argues that it found its true home in the realism of the Victorian period. Novelists like George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, and Olive Schreiner used narrative to explore how traits and behaviors in organisms. In organisms emerge and develop, and how aesthetic features, such as shapes, colors, and gestures, come to take on cultural meaning through categories like race and sex. These authors engaged with materialist science and philosophy, transforming character from the liberal notion of an individual's inner truth into a materially determined figuration produced through shifts in the boundaries between the body's inside and outside. Brilmyer argues that literature became a science in its commitment to uncovering, through a fictional staging of realistic events, the laws governing

The Science of Character also makes a bold new claim for the power of the literary by showing how Victorian novelists used fiction to theorize how character forms. In 1843, the Victorian philosopher John Stuart Mill proposed the establishment of a new science, "the science of the formation of character." While Mills's proposal did not become a scientific practice, S. Pearl Brilmyer argues that it found its true home in the realism of the Victorian period. Novelists like George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, and Olive Schreiner used narrative to explore how traits and behaviors in organisms emerge and develop, and how aesthetic features, such as shapes, colors, and gestures, come to take on cultural meaning through categories like race and sex. These authors engaged with materialist science and philosophy, transforming character from the liberal notion of an individual's inner truth into a materially determined figuration produced through shifts in the boundaries between the body's inside and outside. Brilmyer argues that literature became a science in its commitment to uncovering, through a fictional staging of realistic events, the laws governing physical and affective life.

The Science of Character also makes a bold new claim for the power of the literary by showing how Victorian novelists used fiction to theorize how character forms. In 1843, the Victorian philosopher John Stuart Mill proposed the establishment of a new science, "the science of the formation of character." While Mills's proposal did not become a scientific practice, S. Pearl Brilmyer argues that it found its true home in the realism of the Victorian period. Novelists like George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, and Olive Schreiner used narrative to explore how traits and behaviors in organisms emerge and develop, and how aesthetic features, such as shapes, colors, and gestures, come to take on cultural meaning through categories like race and sex. These authors engaged with materialist science and philosophy, transforming character from the liberal notion of an individual's inner truth into a materially determined figuration produced through shifts in the boundaries between the body's inside and outside. Brilmyer argues that literature became a science in its commitment to uncovering, through a fictional staging of realistic events, the laws governing physical and affective life.

The Science of Character also makes a bold new claim for the power of the literary by showing how Victorian novelists used fiction to theorize how character forms. In 1843, the Victorian philosopher John Stuart Mill proposed the establishment of a new science, "the science of the formation of character." While Mills's proposal did not become a scientific practice, S. Pearl Brilmyer argues that it found its true home in the realism of the Victorian period. Novelists like George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, and Olive Schreiner used narrative to explore how traits and behaviors in organisms emerge and develop, and how aesthetic features, such as shapes, colors, and gestures, come to take on cultural meaning through categories like race and sex. These authors engaged with materialist science and philosophy, transforming character from the liberal notion of an individual's inner truth into a materially determined figuration produced through shifts in the boundaries between the body's inside and outside. Brilmyer argues that literature became a science in its commitment to uncovering, through a fictional staging of realistic events, the laws governing physical and affective life.

The Science of Character also makes a bold new claim for the power of the literary by showing how Victorian novelists used fiction to theorize how character forms. In 1843, the Victorian philosopher John Stuart Mill proposed the establishment of a new science, "the science of the formation of character." While Mills's proposal did not become a scientific practice, S. Pearl Brilmyer argues that it found its true home in the realism of the Victorian period. Novelists like George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, and Olive Schreiner used narrative to explore how traits and behaviors in organisms emerge and develop, and how aesthetic features, such as shapes, colors, and gestures, come to take on cultural meaning through categories like race and sex. These authors engaged with materialist science and philosophy, transforming character from the liberal notion of an individual's inner truth into a materially determined figuration produced through shifts in the boundaries between the body's inside and outside. Brilmyer argues that literature became a science in its commitment to uncovering, through a fictional staging of realistic events, the laws governing physical and affective life.

Weight: 440g
Dimension: 347 x 325 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780226815787