A Brave New World of Knowledge: Shakespeare's the Tempest and Early Modern Epistemology

by B. J. Sokol

Overview

This study of an extraordinary work of dramatic literature addresses questions on the nature and dissemination of the ‘scientific revolution.’ It uncovers a number of previously little appreciated connections of The Tempest with specific problems or advances of knowledge, thus showing that the play reflected innovative proto-scientific modes of confronting the physical, biological, and human realms.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781611472264
Publisher:	Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
Publication date:	08/01/2003
Pages:	274
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.90(d)

Table of Contents

	Illustrations	9
	Acknowledgments	11
	Introduction	15
1.	The Natural History of Pearls and the Pearls in Ariel's Second Song	30
2.	Scientific Theory: The Example of Thomas Harriot and Virginia	48
3.	The Tempest and New World Cultural Encounter	77
4.	The Tempest, Atmospheric Science, Prague Magi, and a Jamestown Experimenter	97
5.	"The strong necessity of time"	125
6.	The Natural and the Supernatural	143
7.	Why Prospero Abjures "Rough Magic" and What He Must "Acknowledge"	163
	Afterword	195
	Notes	199
	Bibliography	242
	Index	266