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Palgrave Macmillan

Emerson's Sublime Science

  • Book
  • © 1999

Overview

Authors:
  1. Eric Wilson

    1. Wake Forest University, USA

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Part of the book series: Romanticism in Perspective:Texts, Cultures, Histories (ROPTCH)

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xii
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  2. Introduction: Poetry Realized in Nature

    • Eric Wilson
    Pages 1-16

  3. Sublime Science

    • Eric Wilson
    Pages 17-49

  4. The Hermetic Current

    • Eric Wilson
    Pages 50-75

  5. Electric Cosmos

    • Eric Wilson
    Pages 76-97

  6. Electric Words

    • Eric Wilson
    Pages 98-127

  7. The Electric Field of Nature

    • Eric Wilson
    Pages 128-152

  8. Scientific Edification

    • Eric Wilson
    Pages 153-175

  9. Conclusion: Innocence and Experience

    • Eric Wilson
    Pages 176-179

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 180-204
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Keywords

About this book

Emerson's Sublime Science explores relationships among Emerson's poetics, theory of the sublime, and engagement with electromagnetism. The book illustrates how Davy's chemistry and Faraday's physics revealed to Emerson a sublime universe in which matter is boundless electrical force. It argues that Emerson translated this discovery into a sublime writing style crafted to galvanize readers with the insight that matter is energy. In illuminating Emerson's project, this study also uncovers connections among British Romanticism, American Romanticism, and nineteenth-century science.

Reviews

'Wilson's book is interesting in the way it combines a close reading of Emerson's Nature (1836) with a wide range of philosophical ideas and a survey of scientific developments from Renaissance hermeticism via electromagnetism to quantum theory.' - Ginette Verstraete, Ambix 49

Authors and Affiliations

  • Wake Forest University, USA

    Eric Wilson

About the author

Eric Wilson is Associate Professor of English at Wake Forest University.

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