Preserv[ing] the Freshness of the System: Itineraries of the Body in Alexander Bain's Rhetoric of Travel

£6.99

Symbiosis 8.1 63-76
Author: Genie Babb
Pages: 16

'‘Preserv[ing] the Freshness of the System’: Itineraries of the Body in Alexander Bain’s Rhetoric of Travel' by Genie Babb, delves into the intricate connections between travel, rhetoric, and the physiological theories of the 19th-century Scottish polymath Alexander Bain. Originally published in Symbiosis: a Journal of Anglo-American Literary Relations, this essay examines Bain's revolutionary ideas on the mind/body relationship and their implications for travel writing and education. Babb explores how Bain's holistic approach to travel and the rhetoric of travel writing influenced the teaching of English composition and the broader cultural context of Anglo-American literary relations. This scholarly work is essential for readers interested in literary criticism, intellectual history, and the history of psychology.

Essay Excerpt

"While the face of the civilized world is receiving its network of railroads, and the broad sea is becoming narrower by steam power, it may not be unprofitable to take up as a theme of study and discourse, ‘How to travel.’ Thus begins a little-known essay by nineteenth-century Scottish polymath Alexander Bain. Since travel is pertinent to an understanding of Anglo-American literary relations, it is instructive to think not just about the travel itself, but also about the theories of travel that informed attitudes and practices. Bain’s advice in this essay draws on the revolutionary (for the time) assumption that the mind/body is a unified system, that physiological processes are intimately bound up with intellectual and aesthetic comprehension and experience."