The scientifically marked body: Dehumanization and emasculation in British literature, 1620--1767

From Francis Bacon to Laurence Sterne, authors across the long-eighteenth century use images of anomalous male bodies to critique contemporary claims of scientific omnipotence and infallibility. My study explores how Bacon\u27s New Atlantis, Cavendish\u27s Blazing World, Swift\u27s Gulliver\u27s Travels, and Sterne\u27s Tristram Shandy depict what I refer to as the scientifically marked body, a male body that has been emasculated, dehumanized, or otherwise deformed by the practice of science. In deploying scientifically marked bodies, these authors engage with scientific texts and cultural debates to reveal science\u27s potential for epistemological fallacy, practical inefficacy, and societal disruption, especially regarding technologies of war, medicine, and colonialism.