Organs, Organisms, Organisations: Organic Form in 19th-century Discourse

The volume addresses the question of organic form and organicity from various theoretical and critical perspectives. Nineteenth-century discourse in Europe and in America circulates numerous, sometimes incompatible, versions of organicity, which are all humanist, mostly due to the conviction of the centrality of the ‘human’ itself. What is searched for is a natural essence of humanity, of human products, organisations and values without any regard to class, race and gender, an issue addressed by a number of texts in the volume, ranging from analyses of Romantic visions of harmonious universe and attempts at their implantation in South Africa to attempts at legitimising humanity via granting some rights to animals.