Mediating Order and Chaos: The Water-cycle in the Complex Adaptive Systems of Romantic CultureThis literature-centered study offers an interdisciplinary approach to Romantic culture. If is pioneering in that it employs the complexity method of anthropology. Recent literary studies employ the complexity/chaos theory adapted from the natural sciences; however, here is presented for the first time a complexity method taken from the social/human sciences. This complexity method is useful in mediating not only contradictions within Romanticism, but the chaos of contemporary theories concerning it. One of the intensifying literary debates is that between the so-called "Greens" and "Reds," naturalists and humanists. Mediating Order and Chaos not only traces the split between nature and man to Romantic Culture but finds there, too, a Spinozian vision of man and nature in unity - thereby denying any naturalist/humanist split. This volume is of interest for those who wish to see essays in the holistic approach to culture. Centering on hydraulics, hydrology, and meteorology, this study examines literature, painting, music, economics, and the rhetoric of science, philosophy, and politics, it therewith demonstrates how the water cycle was transformed into a cosmic metaphor that mediated, in the form of several complex adaptive systems, between the chaos of too much change and that of not enough. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 83
Page 8
... Natural Supernaturalism — which I unashamedly take as one of several models for my own - wonderfully endures all attacks and changes in the field . Schenk's model is the binary opposition of Christian orthodoxy and nihilism . In the ...
... Natural Supernaturalism — which I unashamedly take as one of several models for my own - wonderfully endures all attacks and changes in the field . Schenk's model is the binary opposition of Christian orthodoxy and nihilism . In the ...
Page 12
... nature itself is unable to conserve infinite accuracy in its own interactions . 17 ' Chaos theory ' , as Roberts seems to employ the term , suggests that there is no escape from ignorance in a chaotic world of baffling multiplicity and ...
... nature itself is unable to conserve infinite accuracy in its own interactions . 17 ' Chaos theory ' , as Roberts seems to employ the term , suggests that there is no escape from ignorance in a chaotic world of baffling multiplicity and ...
Page 13
... natural science , into an anthropological study of hydrology and hydraulic agriculture on the Indonesian island of Bali ... nature of the lost optimal balance between insect damage and water allocation of the farmers , but also was to ...
... natural science , into an anthropological study of hydrology and hydraulic agriculture on the Indonesian island of Bali ... nature of the lost optimal balance between insect damage and water allocation of the farmers , but also was to ...
Page 18
... nature of Crèvecoeur's vision . It approaches in spirit the central tenet of the ethics of Baruch Spinoza : in order to reconcile oneself to the hard ways of the world , one must look at it under the aspect of the eternal ( sub specie ...
... nature of Crèvecoeur's vision . It approaches in spirit the central tenet of the ethics of Baruch Spinoza : in order to reconcile oneself to the hard ways of the world , one must look at it under the aspect of the eternal ( sub specie ...
Page 30
... nature or , at least , takes over the misreadings of other scholars . Nature merely as a source of raw materials for human industry does not do justice to Marx's ecological perspective . A solid reading of what the inventor of the Eco ...
... nature or , at least , takes over the misreadings of other scholars . Nature merely as a source of raw materials for human industry does not do justice to Marx's ecological perspective . A solid reading of what the inventor of the Eco ...
Contents
1 | |
7 | |
SOURCE | 69 |
FLOW | 117 |
RECEPTACLE | 199 |
LINK | 267 |
CONCLUSION | 325 |
PRIMARY BIBLIOGRAPHY | 331 |
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY ON SECONDARY WORKS | 342 |
Other editions - View all
Mediating Order and Chaos: The Water-cycle in the Complex Adaptive Systems ... Rodney Farnsworth No preview available - 2001 |
Common terms and phrases
Abrams allegorical artist aspect Baroque Byron Caspar David Friedrich century chaos chapter Classicism clouds Coleridge complexity theory concept Constable context cosmic create cycle described Dorothea Duddon elements employed eternal falls Faust flow flux fountain French Revolution Friedrich glacier Goethe Goethe's Hermann and Dorothea Hugo Hugo's human hydrological-cycle hydrology imagery Jane Austen Kenneth Clark lake Lamartine landscape Lansing lines lyric Mary Shelley metaphor mind mist Mont Blanc movement nature Neoclassical Neoclassicism ocean offers painters painting paradox passage permanence in change persona poem poet poet's poetic poetry political quarter rain rendered represent rhetoric river River Duddon rocks Romantic culture Romanticism scene scientific seems sense Shelley Shelley's significant sonnet spring stanza Stolberg Storm and Stress stream suggest symbol term topographical treated Turner Vaughan vision water images water phenomena water-cycle waterfall waves Weimar Classicism Werther Wordsworth world view York
Popular passages
Page 249 - And first one universal shriek there rush'd, Louder than the loud ocean, like a crash Of echoing thunder; and then all was hush'd, Save the wild wind and the remorseless dash Of billows; but at intervals there gush'd, Accompanied with a convulsive splash, A solitary shriek, the bubbling cry Of some strong swimmer in his agony.
Page 103 - Motionless torrents! silent cataracts! Who made you glorious as the Gates of Heaven Beneath the keen full moon? Who bade the sun Clothe you with rainbows? Who, with living flowers Of loveliest blue, spread garlands at your feet? GOD! let the torrents, like a shout of nations, Answer! and let the ice-plains echo, GOD!
Page 208 - Mais s'il est un état où l'ame trouve une assiette assez solide pour s'y reposer tout entière , et rassembler là tout son être , sans avoir besoin de rappeler le passé ni d'enjamber sur l'avenir, où le temps ne soit rien pour elle , où le présent dure toujours, sans néanmoins marquer sa durée et sans aucune trace de succession...
Page 299 - I sift the snow on the mountains below, And their great pines groan aghast ; And all the night 'tis my pillow white, While I sleep in the arms of the blast.
Page 105 - Were all like workings of one mind, the features Of the same face, blossoms upon one tree ; Characters of the great Apocalypse, The types and symbols of Eternity, Of first, and last, and midst, and without end.