Goethe's Colors: Revolutionary Optics and the Anthropocene
Abstract:For Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832), a study of colors expresses the morphological and metamorphic processes of the active natural world, energized by the sunlight, that grow, live, and crystallize into ever new forms. Rather than focusing on static objects, Goethe saw the natural—and social—world as an expression of ongoing processes. Colors are, above all, actively developing components of a world in fux, not fxed entities. Newton, he wrote, was wrong in that he studied light as if it were an isolated feature and not an interactive part of the world. Newton's breakdown of white light into the spectrum of colors is accurate, of course; what Goethe recognized, in contrast, is the more complex and muddied realm of perception and relations between and among things and observers, studied in quantum mechanics and the new materialisms. In other words, these felds and Goethe postulate that our physical world and human existence are part of manifold engagements between energy, matter, living things, and mental perception. We are never truly "outside" of the system that we study, though most of empirical science assumes that we are or could be or at least should strive to be when undertaking objective studies. With this vision, Goethe offers what I call a proto-"ecological theory of colors" at the beginning of the newly defned geological era of the Anthropocene when human activities have left traces on environmental systems across the entire Earth.
Goethe contra Newton: Polemics and the Project for a New Science of Color
Preface List of abbreviations 1. Defining the questions of the Farbenlehre 2. The Farbenlehre in its origin 3. The problematics of Newton's theory of white light and colors 4. Factuality, certainty, and the organization of science 5. Goethe and the ethos of science Appendix Notes References Index.
The Nature of Cities: Ecocriticism and Urban Environments
Cities are often thought to be separate from nature, but recent trends in ecocriticism demand that we consider them as part of the total environment. This new collection of essays sharpens the focus on the nature of cities by exploring the facets of an urban ecocriticism, by reminding city dwellers of their place in ecosystems, and by emphasizing the importance of this connection in understanding urban life and culture. The editors both raised in small towns but now living in major urban areas are especially concerned with the sociopolitical construction of all environments, both natural and manmade. Following an opening interview with Andrew Ross exploring the general parameters of urban ecocriticism, they present essays that explore urban nature writing, city parks, urban "wilderness," ecofeminism and the city, and urban space. The volume includes contributions on topics as wide-ranging as the urban poetry of English writers from Donne to Gay, the manufactured wildness of a gambling casino, and the marketing of cosmetics to urban women by idealizing Third World "naturalness." These essays seek to reconceive nature and its cultural representations in ways that contribute to understanding the contemporary cityscape. They explore the theoretical issues that arise when one attempts to adopt and adapt an environmental perspective for analyzing urban life. The Nature of Cities offers the ecological component often missing from cultural analyses of the city and the urban perspective often lacking in environmental approaches to contemporary culture. By bridging the historical gap between environmentalism, cultural studies, and urban experience, the book makes a statement of lasting importance to the development of the ecocritical movement. CONTENTS-Part 1 The Nature of Cities-1. Urban Ecocriticism: An Introduction, Michael Bennett & David Teague-2. The Social Claim on Urban Ecology, Andrew Ross (interviewed by Michael Bennett)-Part 2 Urban Nature Writing-3. London Here and Now: Walking, Streets, and Urban Environments in English Poetry from Donne to Gay, Gary Roberts-4. "All Things Natural Are Strange": Audre Lorde, Urban Nature, and Cultural Place, Kathleen R. Wallace-5. Inculcating Wildness: Ecocomposition, Nature Writing, and the Regreening of the American Suburb, Terrell Dixon-Part 3 City Parks-6. Writers and Dilettantes: Central Park and the Literary Origins of Antebellum Urban Nature, Adam W. Sweeting-7. Postindustrial Park or Bourgeois Playground? Preservation and Urban Restructuring at Seattle's Gas Works Park, Richard Heyman-Part 4 Urban "Wilderness"-8. Boyz in the Woods: Urban Wilderness in American Cinema, Andrew Light-9. Central High and the Suburban Landscape: The Ecology of White Flight, David Teague-10. Manufacturing the Ghetto: Anti-urbanism and the Spatialization of Race, Michael Bennett-Part 5 Ecofeminism and the City-11. An Ecofeminist Perspective on the Urban Environment, Catherine Villanueva Gardner-12. "You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman": The Political Economy of Contemporary Cosmetics Discourse, Laura L. Sullivan-Part 6 Theorizing Urban Space-13. Darwin's City, or Life Underground: Evolution, Progress, and the Shapes of Things to Come, Joanne Gottlieb-14. Nature in the Apartment: Humans, Pets, and the Value of Incommensurability, David R. Shumway-15. Cosmology in the Casino: Simulacra of Nature in the Interiorized Wilderness, Michael P. Branch-