Vitalism in Literature and Culture from the Twentieth Century to the Present
This year’s conference theme invites participants to reflect on “regeneration in the sense of bringing forth… a new entity that is more powerful, vigorous, efficient, and healthier.” This selection of terms immediately evokes vitalism—a philosophy of regeneration centered on dynamism, productivity, energy, life force, creativity, and strength. Vitalism emerged in response to mechanistic and materialist accounts of life; though often dismissed by the end of the nineteenth century as a pseudo-science, vitalism has endured as a complex and influential philosophical framework from the twentieth century to the present. Authoritarian regimes in the early twentieth century appropriated vitalist ideas and imagery in support of fascism.
