Metodo

International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Book | Chapter

186951

A motor-flight through early twentieth-century consciousness

capturing the driving-event 1905–1935

Lynne Pearce

pp. 78-98

Abstract

It is thought-provoking to observe the extent to which motoring has long been, and still is, associated with madness. Whilst, today, the psychopathology of car culture may turn upon its environmental insanity and the widely reported tabloid phenomenon, "road rage",1 a century ago, when motoring was still in its infancy, there was wide concern for how the altered states of consciousness brought about by travelling at speed might constitute, or at least lead to, a kind of madness.2 Sometimes this was indexed as a benign "motor mania" (as in Mrs. Kennard's "witty and amusing" middle-brow novel, The Motor Maniac (1902)); in other texts (fictional and otherwise), however, the "mania" takes a rather more disturbing turn.

Publication details

Published in:

Murray Lesley, Upstone Sara (2014) Researching and representing mobilities: transdisciplinary encounters. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 78-98

DOI: 10.1057/9781137346667_5

Full citation:

Pearce Lynne (2014) „A motor-flight through early twentieth-century consciousness: capturing the driving-event 1905–1935“, In: L. Murray & S. Upstone (eds.), Researching and representing mobilities, Dordrecht, Springer, 78–98.