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Book Cover
E-book
Author Sokol, B. J

Title A brave new world of knowledge : Shakespeare's The tempest and early modern epistemology / B.J. Sokol
Published Madison : Fairleigh Dickinson University Press ; London ; Cranbury, NJ : Associated University Presses, ©2003

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Description 1 online resource (274 pages) : illustrations
Contents Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- A Brave New World of Knowledge -- Introduction -- 1 The Natural History of Pearls and the Pearls in Ariel's Second Song -- 2 Scientific Theory: The Example of Thomas Harriot and Virginia -- 3 The Tempest and New World Cultural Encounter -- 4 The Tempest, Atmospheric Science, Prague Magi, and a Jamestown Experimenter -- 5 '' The Strong Necessity of Time'' -- 6 The Natural and the Supernatural -- 7 Why Prospero Abjures ''Rough Magic, '' and What He Must '' Acknowledge'' -- Afterword -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
Summary "A Brave New World of Knowledge studies Shakespeare's The Tempest using materials relating to the history of early seventeenth-century proto-science. These materials are either newly investigated, or are derived from sophisticated recent work that has been little consulted before by Shakespeare scholars." "This book is centrally concerned with a classic of dramatic literature which is extraordinary in terms of its genre, structure, style, language, mythos, characterization, and long-term influence. All of these elements are addressed. Yet, to do so, the book finds it valuable to confront quite large questions about the nature and dissemination of the early seventeenth-century so-called "scientific revolution."" "The study also considers, somewhat generally at its outset and then in varied specific ways throughout, what the best interdisciplinary approach to a Shakespeare play might be. It argues for the futility, or possible deceptiveness, of any search for a "master discourse" which could provide a single main correlative for understanding The Tempest. Instead it illustrates, and argues for the superiority of, interdisciplinary approaches to the complex play which are empirically led and so never irrefutable, and which consciously intend to build on a body of earlier work so as to achieve accumulative increments of understanding. These would therefore be approaches that observe both the established findings and the disciplinary norms of all of the interdisciplinary areas in question." "The main part of this book is concerned with the location of a surprising range of examples of reflections in The Tempest of specific new breakthroughs of knowledge, or new challenges to knowledge, in fields as diverse as natural history, meteorology, ethnology, scientific instrumentation, and time measurement. Explorations of the historical and intellectual contexts of such instances of knowledge acquisition, and explorations of how these instances and contexts vitally connect with the play, must count as the most valuable contributions of this book."--BOOK JACKET
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 242-265) and index
Notes Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL
digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL
Print version record
Subject Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Tempest.
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Philosophy.
SUBJECT Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 fast
Shakespeare, William. Tempest. swd
Tempest (Shakespeare, William) fast
Subject Knowledge, Theory of -- History -- 17th century
Knowledge, Theory of, in literature.
Knowledge, Theory of
Knowledge, Theory of, in literature
Philosophy
Naturwissenschaften
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780838643495
0838643493