Life Embodied
The Promise of Vital Force in Spanish Modernity
NicolĂĄs FernĂĄndez-Medina
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Life Embodied
The Promise of Vital Force in Spanish Modernity
NicolĂĄs FernĂĄndez-Medina
Ă propos de ce livre
The concept of vital force â the immanent energy that promotes the processes of life in the body and in nature â has proved a source of endless fascination and controversy. Indeed, the question of what vitalizes the body has haunted humanity since antiquity, and became even more pressing during the Scientific Revolution and beyond. Examining the complexities and theories about vital force in Spanish modernity, NicolĂĄs FernĂĄndez-Medina's Life Embodied offers a novel and provocative assessment of the question of bodily life in Spain. Starting with Juan de Cabriada's landmark Carta filosĂłfica, mĂ©dico-chymica of 1687 and ending with RamĂłn GĂłmez de la Serna's avant-gardism of the 1910s, FernĂĄndez-Medina incorporates discussions of anatomy, philosophy, science, critical theory, history of medicine, and literary studies to argue that concepts of vital force served as powerful vehicles to interrogate the possibilities and limits of corporeality. Paying close attention to how the body's capabilities were conceived and strategically woven into critiques of modernity, FernĂĄndez-Medina engages the work of Miguel Boix y Moliner, MartĂn MartĂnez, Diego de Torres Villarroel, SebastiĂĄn Guerrero Herreros, Ignacio MarĂa Ruiz de Luzuriaga, Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, Pedro Mata y Fontanet, Ăngela Grassi, JuliĂĄn Sanz del RĂo, Miguel de Unamuno, and PĂo Baroja, among others. Drawing on extensive research and analysis, Life Embodied breaks new ground as the first book to address the question of vital force in Spanish modernity.