The Human v. the Machine: Dominant Images of the Body in TransAtlantic Sarah T. N. Koki College

Colum McCann’s TransAtlantic weaves together history and fiction to create an extremely personalized account of actual events. Two of these stories, that of Frederick Douglass coupled with those of Jack Alcock and Teddy Brown, are particularly interesting because they are predominantly concerned with the bodies of the human and the machine likened to the human’s. Therefore, the dominant images of the body in TransAtlantic are those of the physical body and how it operates in relation to social experiences. Michel Foucault’s theory of the body in a political purpose and Mary Douglas’ theory of the body as a function of society can be applied to McCann’s accounts of Frederick’s and Alcock and Brown’s accomplishments.

According to Foucault, the physical body is not merely a biological organism, but it is also a target for political subjection as much as an anatomical mean of production (100). While historians have extensively studied the body in terms of demography or pathology, it also holds obvious significance in the economic sphere of society. The body’s economic use is intertwined with political power and investment as a driving force of production; however, Foucault notes, this power of labor is only possible if the body is...