Johann Wilhelm Ritter (1776-1810) was an influential scientist of the Romantic era, acquainted with the greatest minds of his day. He made significant contributions in the fields of chemistry and galvanism, but also tested the boundaries of the sciences and the arts through a speculative thinking which placed human intellectual activity within far-reaching historical narratives. Until now, Ritter's work has remained largely unknown to an Anglophone audience. For the first time, this bilingual edition offers English translations of Ritter's work and explanatory essays of three texts -...

Situated at the intersection of literature and science, Holland's study draws upon a diverse corpus of literary and scientific texts which testify to a cultural fascination with procreation around 1800. Through readings which range from Goethe's writing on metamorphosis to Novalis's aphorisms and novels and Ritter's Fragments from the Estate of a Young Physicist, Holland proposes that each author contributes to a scientifically-informed poetics of procreation. Rather than subscribing to a single biological theory (such as epigenesis or preformation), these authors take their inspiration from...