Back to nature : the green and the real in the late Renaissance / Robert N. Watson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Watson, Robert N.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English literature--Early modern, 1500-1700--History and criticism.

English literature.

Nature in literature.

Pastoral literature, English--History and criticism.

Pastoral literature, English.

Philosophy of nature in literature.

Nature in art.

Human ecology in literature.

Renaissance--England.

Renaissance.

Physical Description:

viii, 436 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Selected by Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title Sweeping across scholarly disciplines, Back to Nature shows that, from the moment of their conception, modern ecological and epistemological anxieties were conjoined twins. Urbanization, capitalism, Protestantism, colonialism, revived Skepticism, empirical science, and optical technologies conspired to alienate people from both the earth and reality itself in the seventeenth century. Literary and visual arts explored the resulting cultural wounds, expressing the pain and proposing some ingenious cures. The stakes, Robert N. Watson demonstrates, were huge. Shakespeare's comedies, Marvell's pastoral lyrics, Traherne's visionary Centuries, and Dutch painting all illuminate a fierce submerged debate about what love of nature has to do with perception of reality.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Part I. Introduction The Green and the Real

1. Ecology, Epistemology, and Empiricism

2. Theology, Semiotics, and Literature

Part II. Paradoxes Alienation from Nature in English Literature

3. As You Liken It: Simile in the Forest

4. Shades of Green: Marvell's Garden and the Mowers

Part III. Reformations Protestant Politics, Poetics, and Paintings

5. Metaphysical and Cavalier Styles of Consciousness

6. The Retreat of God, the Passions of Nature, and the Objects of Dutch Painting

7. Nature in Two Dimensions: Perspective and Presence in Ryckaert, Vermeer, and Others

Part IV. Solutions The Consolations of Mediation

8. Metal and Flesh in The Merchant of Venice: Shining Substitutes and Approximate Values

9. Thomas Traherne: The World as Present

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Acknowledgments

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [397]-417) and index.

ISBN:

9780812204254

0812204255

OCLC:

859160887