Review of Tom Furniss’s ‘A Romantic Geology: James Hutton’s 1788 Theory of the Earth’

摘要

In "A Romantic Geology," Tom Furniss deftly analyses James Hutton's Theory of the Earth and suggests its influence on Romantic poets such as Wordsworth and Coleridge. The author thus explores the fascinating "interplay between geological speculation and the aesthetic experience and theory of the sublime." (305) More precisely, Furniss claims that Hutton's theory could be considered as "Romantic" because, on the one hand, it provides a Wordsworthian representation of nature and of the Earth and, on the other, it reveals what Noah Heringman labelled as "geological sublime", i.e. " a geo-category that was common to the aesthetic geology and geological aesthetics of the period and that impacted on the first generation of Romantic poets." (307) By connecting Hutton's geological research with the philosophical notions of space, time and nature expressed by Romantic poets, Furniss specifically puts forward the mutual and fertile relationship between science and literature in "Romantic culture," so as to reflect on the prominent and less-explored influence of scientific progress on Poetry: "what we call 'Romantic science' cannot be seen merely as the backdrop or foil to Romantic poetry but as part of a much more extensive Romantic cultural formation that has more continuities with the Enlightenment project than is usually recognised." (307, my emphasis)