In this Book
- Clandestine Marriage: Botany and Romantic Culture
- Book
- 2012
- Published by: Johns Hopkins University Press
summary
Botany in the romantic era played a role in debates about life, nature, and knowledge, as evidenced in this ambitious, beautifully illustrated study.Winner, 2012 British Society for Literature and Science Book PrizeRomanticism was a cultural and intellectual movement characterized by discovery, revolution, and the poetic as well as by the philosophical relationship between people and nature. Botany sits at the intersection where romantic scientific and literary discourses meet. Clandestine Marriage explores the meaning and methods of how plants were represented and reproduced in scientific, literary, artistic, and material cultures of the period. Theresa M. Kelley synthesizes romantic debates about taxonomy and morphology, the contemporary interest in books and magazines devoted to plant study and images, and writings by such authors as Mary Wollstonecraft and Anna Letitia Barbauld. Period botanical paintings of flowers are reproduced in vibrant color, bringing her argument and the romantics' passion for plants to life.In addition to exploring botanic thought and practice in the context of British romanticism, Kelley also looks to the German philosophical traditions of Kant, Hegel, and Goethe and to Charles Darwin’s reflections on orchids and plant pollination. Her interdisciplinary approach allows a deeper understanding of a time when exploration of the natural world was a culture-wide enchantment.
Table of Contents
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- List of Illustrations
- pp. vii-viii
- Acknowledgments
- pp. ix-x
- 1. Introduction
- pp. 1-16
- 2. Botanical Matters
- pp. 17-51
- 3. Botany’s Publics and Privates
- pp. 52-89
- 4. Botanizing Women
- pp. 90-125
- 5. Clare’s Commonable Plants
- pp. 126-158
- 6. Reading Matter and Paint
- pp. 162-209
- 7. Restless Romantic Plants and Philosophers
- pp. 216-245
- 8. Conclusion
- pp. 246-262
- Bibliography
- pp. 299-323
Additional Information
ISBN
9781421407609
Related ISBN(s)
9781421405179
MARC Record
OCLC
819379648
Pages
400
Launched on MUSE
2012-11-16
Language
English
Open Access
No