Culture of Accidents: Unexpected Knowledges in Early Modern EnglandStanford University Press, 1 de set. 2002 - 240 pàgines Collapsing buildings, unexpected meetings in the marketplace, monstrous births, encounters with pirates at sea—these and other unforeseen “accidents” at the turn of the seventeenth century in England acquired unprecedented significance in the early modern philosophical and cultural imagination. Drawing on intellectual history, cultural criticism, and rhetorical theory, this book chronicles the narrative transformation of “accident” from a philosophical dead end to an astonishing occasion for revelation and wonder in early modern religious life, dramatic practice, and experimental philosophy. Embracing the notion that accident was a concept with both learned and popular appeal, the book traces its evolution through Aristotelian, Scholastic, and Calvinist thought into a range of early modern texts. It suggests that for many English writers, accidental events raised fundamental questions about the nature of order in the world and the way that order should be apprehended. Alongside texts by such canonical figures as Shakespeare and Bacon, this study draws on several lesser-known authors of sensational news accounts about accidents that occurred around the turn of the seventeenth century. The result is a cultural anatomy of accidents as philosophical problem, theatrical conceit, spiritual landmark, and even a prototype for Baconian “experiment,” one that provides a fresh interpretation of the early modern engagement with contingency in intellectual and cultural terms. |
Des de l'interior del llibre
Resultats 1 - 5 de 51.
... stages . This advice led to substantial revisions of the first three chapters . My friends and colleagues in Pittsburgh came to my rescue while I was finishing the book , assisting me through several months of recov- ery from a serious ...
... stage with a self - con- scious theatricalization of experience in politics and religious life.3 Given the widespread interest in wonder , it is surprising that one of its most traditional sources - accidental events - has gone largely ...
... stage - they presented a challenge to both the theology of the Reforma- tion and the long - standing philosophical tradition of Aristotelian meta- physics . On the one hand , the early modern belief in " special provi- dence " dictated ...
... stage , itself a staple of royal political rhetoric and post - Reformation theology , also meant that the accident was capable of generating pow- erful ideological effects , transforming the world of lived experience into a fiction ...
... stage , they import a material feature of the world - its blind bustle of things combining in unforeseen ways - into the thoroughly contrived space of art . Possessed of both the indifferent necessity of fact and the weird symmetry of ...
Continguts
Early Modern Accidents and an Aristotelian Tradition | 17 |
Exemplary Accidents from Cicero to Jean Calvin | 42 |
The Avoidance of Ends in The Comedy of Errors | 62 |
Hamlet Interrupted | 82 |
Accident and the Invention of Knowledge in Francis | 111 |
The Blackfriars Accident | 130 |
Notes | 159 |
Bibliography | 205 |
Index | 219 |
Altres edicions - Mostra-ho tot
Culture of Accidents: Unexpected Knowledges in Early Modern England Michael Witmore Previsualització limitada - 2002 |
Culture of Accidents: Unexpected Knowledges in Early Modern England Michael Witmore Previsualització no disponible - 2002 |