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Literature, Science and Exploration in the Romantic Era

Bodies of Knowledge

Debbie Lee author Peter J Kitson author Tim Fulford author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:23rd Jul '07

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Literature, Science and Exploration in the Romantic Era cover

Examines the massive impact of colonial exploration on British scientific and literary activity between the 1760s and 1830s.

In Literature, Science and Exploration in the Romantic Era, Fulford, Kitson and Lee examine the massive impact of colonial exploration upon British scientific and literary activity between the 1760s and 1830s. This broad-ranging and well illustrated study will appeal to literary and cultural studies scholars.In 1768, Captain James Cook made the most important scientific voyage of the eighteenth century. He was not alone: scores of explorers like Cook, travelling in the name of science, brought new worlds and new peoples within the horizon of European knowledge for the first time. Their discoveries changed the course of science. Old scientific disciplines, such as astronomy and botany, were transformed; new ones, like craniology and comparative anatomy, were brought into being. Scientific disciplines, in turn, pushed literature of the period towards new subjects, forms and styles. Works as diverse as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Wordsworth's Excursion responded to the explorers' and scientists' latest discoveries. This wide-ranging and well-illustrated study shows how literary Romanticism arose partly in response to science's appropriation of explorers' encounters with foreign people and places and how it, in turn, changed the profile of science and exploration.

'An important requirement for the establishment of knowledge is knowledge of the establishment. the authors of this well-researched and fascinating book have illustrated this truth more amply than they concede.' MLR
'This is a wonderfully provocative book, replete with broad speculations, new ideas, forgotten facts, and neglected histories. Jointly conceived by three authors, it represents the best of interdisciplinary inquiry and scholarly engagement. The clarity of its introduction assures from the start an ongoing usefulness to students, general readers, and scholars.' CLIO

ISBN: 9780521039956

Dimensions: 228mm x 152mm x 19mm

Weight: 524g

348 pages