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The Colonial Picturesque and the Medical Utility of Landscape Aesthetics
Author(s) -
SENIOR EMILY
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal for eighteenth‐century studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.129
H-Index - 11
eISSN - 1754-0208
pISSN - 1754-0194
DOI - 10.1111/1754-0208.12079
Subject(s) - colonialism , representation (politics) , aesthetics , thematic map , art history , art , sociology , history , geography , political science , archaeology , cartography , politics , law
Abstract The new sciences of medical geography and topography developed at the end of the eighteenth century and coincided with the literary and artistic fashion for the picturesque representation of landscape. This article explores the relationship between medical geography and the literary picturesque in the colonial C aribbean. It argues that literature and medicine borrowed formal and thematic qualities from one another, and reveals the influence of aesthetic ideals on the production of medical knowledge.