Handmaid to Divinity: Natural Philosophy, Poetry, and Gender in Seventeenth-century EnglandIn Handmaid to Divinity, Desiree Hellegers establishes seventeenth-century poetry as a critical resource for understanding the debates about natural philosophy, astronomy, and medicine during the Scientific Revolution. Hellegers provides important insights into seventeenth-century responses to the emergent discourses of western science and into the cultural roots of the current environmental crisis. Drawing on recent cultural and feminist critiques of science, Hellegers offers finely nuanced readings of John Donne’s Anniversaries, John Milton’s Paradise Lost, and Anne Finch’s The Spleen. |
Contents
Francis Bacon and the Advancement of Absolutism | 22 |
Poetry | 67 |
The Fall of Science in Book 8 of Paradise Lost | 103 |
An Anatomy of the Handmaids Tale | 168 |
| 195 | |
| 209 | |
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Handmaid to Divinity: Natural Philosophy, Poetry, and Gender in Seventeenth ... Desiree Hellegers No preview available - 2024 |
Common terms and phrases
Adam Adam's Adamic language Advancement of Learning Anne Finch Anniversaries argue argument assertion associated Astraea authority Bacon's natural philosophy Biagioli body Book of Nature Boyle century claims concern contingency corrupt Cowley Cowley's critics critique cultural demonstrate dialogue on astronomy discourse divine order divine truth Donne's Drury earth experimental feminine feminized feminized nature Finch suggests Francis Bacon Galileo gender heavens human hysteria Ibid identified ideology implications implicitly interpretation invokes Jacobean Jacobean court John Donne John Milton John Wilkins king knowledge language legitimate male Marotti masculine masculinist metaphor Milton monarch natural philosophy natural world observes ostensibly Paradise Lost passage patronage Pindaric play poems poet poet's poetry political postlapsarian prerogative privileged reader reflects relationship representations resistance rhetoric role Royal Society scientific Scripture serve seventeenth Seventeenth-Century England sexual Shapin shee Sidereus nuncius skepticism social spleen strategies Sydenham theology things Thomas Sydenham voluntarist Wilkins Wilkins's woman women