JOURNAL ARTICLE

Margaret Cavendish, the New Science, and a New Frontier for English Romance.

  • Published In: Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, 2023, v. 23, n. 3/4. P. 31 1 of 3

  • Database: Humanities Source Ultimate 2 of 3

  • Authored By: Carter, Alexandra 3 of 3

Abstract

This article uses romance as an analytical framework for approaching Cavendish's work. Building from Patricia Parker's seminal study of the romance genre, Inescapable Romance: Studies in the Poetics of a Mode (1979), the article asks readers to consider how romance—a genre that Cavendish was preoccupied with throughout her career—structures Cavendish's companion scientific works: Observations on Experimental Philosophy to which is added The Description of a New Blazing World (1666). Despite the fact that Cavendish published these works in tandem, there is no scholarly edition of the two texts together; instead, Blazing World is often deemed "romancical" in contrast to the more serious academic work of Observations. Rather than view Cavendish's investment in romance and her investment in natural philosophy as distinct, I read them as working in concert. The epistemological structure of opposition that defines romance proves useful to Cavendish as a way of exploring and explaining the workings of the natural world. Ultimately, this article argues that Cavendish mobilizes romance as a design for thinking that facilitates the production of new knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Additional Information

  • Source:Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies. 2023/07, Vol. 23, Issue 3/4, p31
  • Document Type:Article
  • Subject Area:Literature and Writing
  • Publication Date:2023
  • ISSN:15310485
  • Accession Number:186470176
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