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Plastic body, permanent body: Czech representations of corporeality in the early twentieth century

Sleigh, Charlotte (2009) Plastic body, permanent body: Czech representations of corporeality in the early twentieth century. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C, 40 (4). pp. 241-255. ISSN 1369-8486. (doi:10.1016/j.shpsc.2009.09.001) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:31156)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2009.09.001

Abstract

In the early twentieth century, the body was seen as both an ontogenetic and a phylogenetic entity. In the former case, its individual development, it was manifestly changeable, developing from embryo to maturity and thence to a state of decay. But in the latter case, concerning its development as a species, the question was an open one. Was its phylogenetic nature a stationary snapshot of the slow process of evolution, or was this too mutable? Historians have emphasised that the question of acquired inheritance remained open into the twentieth century; this paper explores how various constructions of the individual as a phylogenetic episode—a stage in the race’s evolution—related to representations of the body in the same period.

A discussion of the work of the brothers Josef and Karel C?apek offers a contextualised answer to the question of bodily representation. Karel C? apek (1890–1938) explored the nature of the ‘average man’ through two different organisms, the robot and the amphibian, epitomes respectively of corporeal permanence and plasticity. Josef C? apek (1887–1945), along with other members of the Group of Plastic Artists, explored visual representations of the body that challenged cubist Bergsonian norms. In so doing, he affirmed what his brother also held: that despite the constrictions imposed by the oppressive political conditions in which the Czechs found themselves, the individual body was a fragile but fluid entity, capable of effecting change upon the future evolution of humankind.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1016/j.shpsc.2009.09.001
Uncontrolled keywords: Josef and Karel ?apek, Evolution, Henri Bergson, Literature, Cubism, Artisanship
Subjects: D History General and Old World > D History (General)
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of History
Depositing User: Z. Bliss
Date Deposited: 02 Oct 2012 12:47 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:09 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/31156 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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