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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.

Table of Contents

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  1. Cover
  2. pp. 1-3
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  1. Title
  2. p. 4
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  1. Copyright
  2. pp. 5-7
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  1. Contents
  2. pp. vii-viii
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  1. Part I: Introduction: The Green and the Real
  1. 1 Ecology, Epistemology, and Empiricism
  2. pp. 3-35
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  1. 2 Theology, Semiotics, and Literature
  2. pp. 36-73
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  1. Part II: Paradoxes: Alienation from Nature in English Literature
  1. 3 As You Liken It: Simile in the Forest
  2. pp. 77-107
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  1. 4 Shades of Green: Marvell's Garden and the Mowers
  2. pp. 108-134
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  1. Part III: Reformations: Protestant Politics, Poetics, and Paintings
  1. 5 Metaphysical and Cavalier Styles of Consciousness
  2. pp. 137-165
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  1. 6 The Retreat of God, the Passions of Nature, and the Objects of Dutch Painting
  2. pp. 166-225
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  1. 7 Nature in Two Dimensions: Perspective and Presence in Ryckaert, Vermeer, and Others
  2. pp. 226-254
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  1. Part IV: Solutions: The Consolations of Mediation
  1. 8 Metal and Flesh in The Merchant of Venice: Shining Substitutes and Approximate Values
  2. pp. 257-296
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  1. 9 Thomas Traherne: The World as Present
  2. pp. 297-323
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  1. Conclusion
  2. pp. 324-336
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  1. Notes
  2. pp. 337-396
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  1. Bibliography
  2. pp. 397-417
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  1. Index
  2. pp. 419-436
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  1. Acknowledgments
  2. pp. 437-446
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