Poetic resolutions of scientific revolutions: Astronomy and the literary imaginations of Donne, Swift, and Hardy.

摘要

By examining the use of astronomical concepts and imagery in the works of Donne, Swift, and Hardy within the new historical contexts I construct, new meanings for the literature, new conclusions about the nature of the reception of science by "nonscientists" and the nature of scientific "revolutions" emerge. I view "revolutions" in the history of science not as Kuhnian "paradigmatic crises," but as eclectic personal moments in the intellectual evolution of the individual thinkers who developed "revolutionary" ideas in science as well as within each of the "literary" individuals who responded to those ideas. Donne, Swift, and Hardy create their own "resolutions" of the "revolutions" in contemporary science, and their literary works reflect this synthesis.;In "John Donne and the Astronomical Revolution" I argue from evidence in Donne's poetry that "all" was not "called in doubt" for Donne, as his knowledge of history of astronomy from Copernicus to Kepler reveals his recognition of Kepler's unifying synthesis of elliptical astronomy and theology. In "Jonathan Swift and the Newtonian Revolution" I investigate the long-term scientific controversies of Newton, Edmond Halley, and John Flamsteed and describe Swift's probable knowledge of and response toward these aspects of "Newtonianism," especially his emphasis on the primacy of moral gravity over universal gravitation and moral philosophy over natural philosophy in issues of both faith and reason. In "Thomas Hardy and the Astrophysical Revolution" I suggest that evidence in many of his novels shows that Hardy's understanding of the nebular hypothesis, new determinations of stellar distances, and other discoveries of astrophysics, leads him to express a striking and intense need for morality and sympathy in his godless universe.;Both history of science and literary history investigate moments, concepts, and issues in the development of science and literature, broadly and culturally conceived, and work to relate their findings as clearly as possible to a wide audience comprised of scholars and students with vastly different interests, disciplines and agenda. The combination of the two creates an interdisciplinary model for "doing" literature and science studies.