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202862

Romanticism, scientific wonders, and the technological sublime

Louise Economides

pp. 75-107

Abstract

Contrary to stereotypes regarding romanticism's uniform hostility towards science, writing of the period reflects how technology inspired both wonder and an emergent sense of the "technological sublime." Economides investigates the gender dynamics associated with both of these responses, arguing that wonder entails a gender-neutral celebration of technological innovation in contrast to the gendered ethos of domination that underwrites the technological sublime. Anna Barbauld's poetic celebrations of technological marvels and concurrent anxiety regarding potentially exploitative applications of science are contrasted with William Wordsworth's valorization of the technological sublime. Economides also examines Mary Shelley's rigorous deconstruction of the technological sublime in Frankenstein, exploring how the novel reveals ideological links between Kantian aesthetics and the technological sublime's celebration of reason's triumph over (feminized) objects of sense.

Publication details

Published in:

Economides Louise (2016) The ecology of wonder in romantic and postmodern literature. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.

Pages: 75-107

DOI: 10.1057/978-1-137-47750-7_3

Full citation:

Economides Louise (2016) Romanticism, scientific wonders, and the technological sublime, In: The ecology of wonder in romantic and postmodern literature, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 75–107.