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.

Autorentext

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

Inhalt

Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction: Poetry Realized in Nature Sublime Science The Hermetic Current Electric Cosmos Electric Words The Electric Field of Nature Scientific Edification Conclusion: Innocence and Experience Notes Index