Novel experiments: Speculative science in early American literature
by Spinner, Cheryl, M.A., GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY, 2010, 80 pages; 1479627

Abstract:

This thesis explores eighteenth and nineteenth-century cultures of experiment, which are manifested as scientific, literary, and political experiments. As co-participants of this experimental culture, this thesis reads science, literature, and politics in conjunction with one another. Charles Brockden Brown’s and Herman Melville’s literary experimentations are treated as “fictional-thought experiments” that exist alongside and with the scientific and political experiments of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Of particular interest are the atmospheric and chemical sciences which are particularly useful for developing inventive ideas about race and nation.
 
AdviserDana Luciano
SchoolGEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
SourceMAI/ 49-01, p. , Sep 2010
Source TypeThesis
SubjectsPhilosophy of science; History of science; American literature
Publication Number1479627
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