Sciences of the Body

In the introduction to the section "Sciences of the Body," Laura Otis traces some of the similarities between the scientific and literary texts to follow. One of the points she returns to several times is the importance of metaphor in both types of texts: "When faced with the unknown, both literary and scientific writers created metaphors, not just so that their readers could understand them better, but so that they themselves could make sense of their encounters (131). In "Animal Electricity," Luigi Galvani compares muscles to a Leyden jar (137) -a device invented in the 18th century used for experiments in electricity. It was literally a jar with electrodes on the outside and inside that captured electricity in the jar. (This is the rough definition I gathered from quick research). In any case, Galvani explicitly claims that "there is electricity in animals" (136), so it's interesting that he uses the Leydan jar as a metaphor. It's a literal metaphor to choose if he believed there was electricity present in the muscles. Galvani's discussion of the torpedo sounds fantastical, but this is actually more accurate than most of the essay. The torpedo fish actually does possess electrical power and can give off a shock!(http://chestofbooks.com/reference/A-Library-Of-Wonders-And-Curiosities/The-Torpedo.html). Galvani's use of imagery and metaphor in his essay is helpful for the lay reader to interpret his meaning, but it is a quite different use of these devices than within literary texts.

In a wholly different application, Walt Whitman uses electricity within living creatures as a metaphor for the sanctity and value of human life. Otis notes in her introductory material that Whitman changed the title of this poem to "I Sing the Body Electric" in 1867, when the use of electromagnetism-jargon had become popular. The original text of the poem certainly celebrated the value of life, and the material value of human bodies. But the electric language enabled Whitman to deepen his theme by connecting "the charge of the Soul" (4, 148) with the body. In lines 10 and 11, Whitman explicitly links the body and Soul as one. After this, Whitman begins to capitalize Body, illustrating the emphasis he is placing on the material, as well the spiritual, aspects of humanity. By citing the existence of electricity in the body, he infuses it with the unseen, mysterious elements usually associated with the soul and spirituality.

Whitman uses the conjunction between body and soul in order to call for equality and respect across race and gender divisions. He uses scientific and medical language to illustrate the inherent similarities between people of all races: "Examine these limbs, red, black, or white--they are so cunning in tendon and nerve; They shall be stript, that you may see them" (17-18, 149), and later, "Within there runs blood, The same old blood!" (22-23, 149). Whitman criticizes racism, and specifically the slave trade, by citing the biological similarities between all human beings. In addition, Whitman uses the language of ancestry and descent (30-31) to rebuke disrespect toward human bodies and lives. Whitman goes on to discuss a woman's body. He uses maternal language to reiterate the theme of common ancestry and biology within the human family. Familial language is used to remind the readers of the universality of love. In order to illustrate his belief that "the human body is sacred," (40, 150), Whitman uses electric and biological metaphors. Within this poem, scientific language works, maybe unexpectedly, to infuse the materiality of the body with the spirituality of the metaphysical plane.


Ashley Theissen