‘Science in Magazines’

Project Summary
 

The research project proposes to study the interplay of two developments that started in the middle of the nineteenth century and expanded during its second half: The first is a set of scientific discoveries that turned out to have a significant impact on the way humanity conceives of itself; the second is a vast expansion in the production of periodical literature aimed at children and young adults. The study will examine how science was represented in magazines for young readers between 1847 and 1900, how scientific discourse was adapted (i.e. ‘translated’ for the lay target audience, and what explicit or implicit stance these magazines took in the public debate on what it means to be human that was current at the time.

Concepts of ‘human-ness’ were fundamentally changed in mid-nineteenth century by a range of discoveries and advancements, particularly in the fields of medicine and biology (and, by extension, anthropology and ethnology). Most importantly in the field of medicine, the discovery of anaesthetics opened new possibilities. In 1846, the American William Thomas Morton first demonstrated the use of ether as an anaesthetic. Around the same time, the Scotsman James Young Simpson experimented with various gases and in 1847 introduced chloroform, which quickly became the anaesthetic of choice. This discovery revolutionized clinical surgery, but it also held vast implications for human concepts of pain and suffering that touch on issues of philosophy and religion (cf. Snow 2006). For example, the use of chloroform to ameliorate labour pains was attacked by the clergy, since it seemed to go against god’s punishment of Eve (and women in general), pronounced after the ‘fall’: “I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children” (Gen. 3,16).

A second important set of discoveries was originally made in the field of biology, and its implications for philosophy and theology proved to be even larger. In the mid-nineteenth century, the concept of organic evolution in nature gained ground among biologists; in 1859 Charles Darwin described its principles in his seminal study On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. This theory, and the scientific observations it was based on, challenged a literal interpretation of the bible, since the theory of organic evolution on the basis of natural selection does not include divine intervention and does not grant man a special position within ‘creation’. Not surprisingly, then, the public debate on evolution and its implications for humanity dominated the intellectual climate of the second half of the nineteenth century.

The importance of these discoveries and the debates they engendered can be traced in literary products of the time – evolution theory, for example, plays an important role in Samuel Butler’s Erewhon (1872) or in many of H.G. Wells’s ‘scientific romances’ like The Time Machine (1895) or When the Sleeper Wakes (1899); biological and medical experiments (vivisection) and pain as a marker of humanity feature prominently in Wells’s The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896). While the importance of these scientific discourses in novels of the period – aimed primarily at an adult readership – has already been charted (e.g. Beer 2000), its importance for texts written specifically for young readers has not yet been examined.

This study wants to examine literature for children because it provides a particularly interesting basis for analysing the impact of scientific discoveries and of the public debate surrounding them, since much of it has an explicit or implicit didactic aim. Hence, literature for young readers is likely to convey an ideology, even in texts that may at first sight seem neutral. This kind of ideological bias becomes apparent, for example, with regard to concepts of race, racial superiority and empire building, and a number of scholars have traced the importance of juvenile literature for the rise of imperialist thought in the late nineteenth century (see below). Richard Noakes points specifically to the “importance of mass-circulation juvenile periodicals such as the BOP [Boy’s Own Paper] in shaping the young minds of the late-Victorians and early Edwardians” (2004: 151). If this is the case, it also applies to the treatment of science and of religious and ethical debates surrounding scientific discoveries. And while the contexts of imperialism, racism and the construction of manliness have been well charted, there are only very few studies that examine the treatment of science, and none that focus on the discourse of mankind’s concept of itself and mankind’s place in nature/creation (see below).

While the didactic impetus of much juvenile literature makes it likely that it displays traces of ideological debates, periodicals for young readers are also a particularly interesting object of study for two additional reasons. First, owing to the nature of periodical publication, magazines are able to react much more quickly than books to topics and debates that become of public interest. Second, magazines are much better suited than books for an analysis that includes sociological aspects of production and reception. Due to the mechanisms of the publishing market, most periodicals were aimed at a particular target audience that can be specified in terms of age, gender and social background. Thus, for example, the title can indicate the readers’ intended gender (as in the famous Boy’s Own Paper and its counterpart, the Girl’s Own Paper; other publications explicitly aim at both male and female readers, as The Boys’ and Girls’ Companion or Our Boys and Girls), or name a specific religious outlook (e.g. Young Methodism) or a more general religious intention (e.g. The Juvenile Missionary Herald); furthermore, the price of the publication can serve as an indication of its readership in terms of social stratification, from halfpenny ‘dreadfuls’ to more expensive publications priced out of reach of working class children. Hence an analysis of different magazines makes it possible to compare the treatment of science along various parameters. Specifically, the project will address the following questions:

• To what extent are relevant natural and human sciences (i.e. biology, ethnology, anthropology, medicine) treated in periodicals for young readers?
• How are these sciences ‘translated’ or ‘adapted’ for the perusal by young readers?
• What text forms are used for the treatment of science (e.g. fiction, editorials, non-fictional articles, advertisement, response to letters to the editor, illustrations, graphs and charts, etc.)? What processes of ‘translation’ between fictional and non-fictional text forms are detectable?
• Does the treatment of science raise questions concerning the debate of what it means to be human, or concerning the religious controversy connected with advances in the field of medicine and/-or the concept of evolution?
• What differences in the treatment are discernable in connection to differences in the intended audience of various publications (e.g. magazines for boys vs. magazines for girls vs. magazines for boys and girls; cheap magazines vs. more expensive magazines; magazines with religious intention vs. magazines without explicit markers of religious intention; magazines targeted at very young readers vs. magazines targeted at older readers)?

With the help of this design, the project will not only contribute to our understanding of Victorian juvenile literature, it will also provide a specific view on fundamental ethical, religious and philosophical debates that informed Victorian society in general and will hence portray the historical dimension of a debate that is still on-going (as can be seen, for example, in the controversies surrounding creationist concepts like ‘intelligent design’ in contemporary cultural politics).