Nature into Art : Cultural Transformations in Nineteenth-Century Britain / Carl Woodring.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Woodring, Carl, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Art and literature--Great Britain--History--19th century.

English literature--19th century--History and criticism.

HISTORY / General.

LITERARY CRITICISM / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh.

Local Subjects:

Art and literature--Great Britain--History--19th century.

English literature--19th century--History and criticism.

HISTORY / General.

LITERARY CRITICISM / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (342 p.)

Edition:

Reprint 2014

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2014]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The nineteenth century began with reverence for nature and ended with the apotheosis of art. In this wide-ranging excursion through the literature, visual arts, and natural sciences of the era from Wordsworth to Wilde, Carl Woodring traces shifting ideas and attitudes concerning nature, art, and the relations between the two. The veneration of nature as aesthetic model and ethical norm was gradually eroded not least by the study of biology, which revealed organic nature to be wasteful and murderous. Darwin's work verified the growing perception of nature as amoral by stressing the role of chance in natural selection, a further blow to trust in natural law. Once nature was not worth imitating, art by the century's close could be an end to itself, free of responsibility to the natural. The author examines individual works by Romantic and Victorian poets; narrative prose from James Hogg and Mary Shelley to Conrad, James, and Stevenson; painters from Wilkie through the Pre-Raphaelites to Whistler--all within such general contexts as the picturesque, the sublime, natural theology, romantic irony, romantic Hellenism, realism, photography, aestheticism, arts and crafts, art nouveau, and decadence. Although Woodring focuses on events, movements, and creative minds in England, he also draws upon a range of seminal figures from the Continent and the United States: Alexander von Humboldt, Delacroix, Thomas Cole, and Hawthorne are prominent examples. Nature into Art will fascinate scholars and amateurs of movements in literature, art, science, and cultural history in the Western world after 1780.

Contents:

Frontmatter

PREFACE

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

1. NATURE AND ART

2. SUBLIME PICTURESQUE BEAUTIFUL

3. IMAGINATION AND IRONY

4. THE SUPERNATURAL

5. REALISM

6. PRE-RAPHAELIES

7. DARWIN

8. DOUBLING AND DIVISION

9. AESTHETES

NOTES

INDEX

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-674-59403-7

OCLC:

1013966281