Physics Envy

图书信息

作者	Middleton, Peter
出版社	University of Chicago Press
ISBN	9780226290140
出版时间	2015-04-11
字数	70.3万
分类	University of Chicago Press,进口书,外文原版书,文学,自传,回忆录

读书简介

At the close of the Second World War, modernist poets found themselves in an increasingly scientific world, where natural and social sciences claimed exclusive rights to knowledge of both matter and mind. Following the overthrow of the Newtonian worldview and the recent, shocking displays of the power of the atom, physics led the way, with other disciplines often turning to the methods and discoveries of physics for inspiration.?In Physics Envy, Peter Middleton examines the influence of science, particularly physics, on American poetry since World War II. He focuses on such diverse poets as Charles Olson, Muriel Rukeyser, Amiri Baraka, and Rae Armantrout, among others, revealing how the methods and language of contemporary natural and social sciences-and even the discourse of the leading popular science magazine Scientific American-shaped their work. The relationship, at times, extended in the other direction as well: leading physicists such as Robert Oppenheimer, Werner Heisenberg, and Erwin Schrdinger were interested in whether poetry might help them explain the strangeness of the new, quantum world. Physics Envy is a history of science and poetry that shows how ultimately each serves to illuminate the other in its quest for the true nature of things.

目录

Cover

Title Page

Copyright Page

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I Poetry and Science

1 THE POETIC UNIVERSE Mapping Interrelations between Modern American Poetry and the Sciences

2 WHAT THE PHYSICIST SAID TO THE POET How Physicists Used the Ideal of Poetry to Talk about Uncertainty

Part II Midcentury

3 PROJECTIVE VERSE Fields in Science and Poetics at Midcentury

4 CONCEPTUAL SCHEMES The Midcentury Poetics of Muriel Rukeyser and Charles Olson

5 STORIES, GEOMETRIES, AND ANGELS Muriel Rukeyser, Charles Olson, and Robert Duncan in the 1950s

Part III Scientific Americans

6 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN POETRY Rae Armantrout, Jackson Mac Low, and Robert Duncan

7 DEFYING SOCIAL SCIENCE George Oppen and Amiri Baraka

Coda

Notes

Index