Luigi Galvani's discovery of 'animal electricity' at the end of the eighteenth century resulted in a whole new world of possibilities in which electricity could cure sickness, restore sexual potency and even raise the dead. This is the story of how electricity emerged as a tool for making sense of our bodies and the world around us. For the Victorians, electricity was the science of spectacle and of wonder. It provided them with new ways of probing the nature of reality and understanding themselves. For some people saying that 'electricity is life' was much the same thing as saying there was no such thing as a soul and therefore no such thing as God. For others, the slogan was an invitation to buy new commodities like electric belts or corsets that could revitalize a flagging body.

In this lecture, based on his recent book 'Shocking Bodies', Dr Morus will turn to the history of electricity and the body to find some shocking answers.

Speaker:
Dr Iwan Rhys Morus, Reader in History, Aberystwyth University

This event is FREE. 

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