Description
Book SynopsisDeath, light, figuration and, especially, analogical expressions of figuration, are the primary subjects of this book. They generate associated interests: the relation of literature and science, the methodology of thought and argument, and the processes of narrative, discovery, and interpretation. Creativity, optics, rhetoric, and language are focal as well.
Trade Review"Analogy, 'the connector of the known to the unknown,' is given in-depth exploration in this fascinating study of life and death, darkness and light, language and meaning; a learned, richly textured study that contributes immeasurably to early modern studies." -- -Regina M. Schwartz Professor of English, Northwestern University "This fascinating book is above all a contribution to the history of early modern science that helps an ongoing critical process of revisionism by showing how both scientific and poetic thought use analogy in similar ways. It is also fascinating in its unusual structure: it allows us access to Anderson's subtle critical mind in the process of building interpretations." -- -Leah Marcus Vanderbilt University
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Issues of Death, Light, and Analogy
1. “The Body of This Death”: Donne’s Sermons,
Spenser’s Maleger, Milton’s Sin and Death
2. Mutability and Mortality in The Faerie Queene
3. Satanic Ethos: Evil, Death, and Individuality in
Paradise Lost
4. Connecting the Cultural Dots: Classical to Modern
Traditions of Analogy
5. Proportional Thinking in Kepler’s Science of Light
6. Analogy, Proportion, and Death in Donne’s
Anniversaries
7. Milton’s Twilight Zone: Analogy, Light, and Darkness
in Paradise Lost
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
