CHAOS AND COSMOS
HEIDI C.M. SCOTT
CHAOS AND COSMOS
Literary Roots of Modern Ecology in the British Nineteenth Century
The Pennsylvania State University Press
University Park, Pennsylvania
All poetry quotations and extracts come from the Poetry Foundation website, http://www.poetryfoundation.org, unless otherwise noted.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Scott, Heidi C. M. (Heidi Cathryn Molly), 1978- author.
Chaos and cosmos : literary roots of modern ecology in the British nineteenth century /
Heidi C. M. Scott.
p. cm
Summary: “Traces an epistemological legacy from Romantic and Victorian ecological literature to modern scientific ecology. Investigates two essential and contrasting paradigms of nature that continue to be debated today”—Provided by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-271-06383-6 (cloth: alk. paper)
1. English literature—19th century—History and criticism.
2. Nature in literature. 3. Ecology in literature.
4. Chaotic behavior in systems in literature.
5. Microcosm and macrocosm in literature.
6. Romanticism—Great Britain. I. Title.
PR468.N3S38 2014
820.9’36—dc23
2014004459
Copyright © 2014 The Pennsylvania State University
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Published by The Pennsylvania State University Press,
University Park, PA 16802-1003
The Pennsylvania State University Press is a member of the Association of American University Presses.
It is the policy of The Pennsylvania State University Press to use acid-free paper. Publications on uncoated stock satisfy the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Material, ANSI Z39.48–1992.
This book is printed on paper that contains 30% post-consumer waste.
For Colleen, who lent an ear and dotted my i.
In the realm of evolutionary biology and ecology, ours is an unpredictable world and our place in it an accident of history; it is a place of many possibilities that are influenced by forces beyond our control and, in some cases at least, beyond our immediate comprehension.
—RICHARD LEAKEY AND ROGER LEWIN, The Sixth Extinction (1996), 230–31
Circumstances are like Clouds continually gathering and bursting. While we are laughing the seed of some trouble is put into the wide arable land of events. While we are laughing it sprouts, it grows and suddenly bears a poison fruit which we must pluck.
—JOHN KEATS TO GEORGE AND GEORGIANA KEATS, 14 FEBRUARY–4 MAY 1819
Contents
Introduction: Beyond the Dichotomy
1 Romantic Chaos: Natural Patterns Disturbed
2 Victorian Chaos: Industrial Disruptions
4 Romantic Microcosms: Brain Worlds
5 Victorian Microcosms: Domestic Systems
PART 3 KEATS AND ECOLOGY: A CASE STUDY
8 Hyperion: The Chaos of Tartarus
Many minds contributed to this book at its various stages from shadowy notion to monograph. I would like to thank my mentors and colleagues at the University of Maryland. Jeanne Fahnestock, Orrin Wang, and major advisor Neil Fraistat suggested primary texts, combed through drafts with patience and interest, and commented with insistence. Compatriots Kate Singer, Joseph Byrne, and Elizabeth Whitney helpfully interrogated my ideas in the earlier drafts. My colleagues at Florida International University, especially Meri-Jane Rochelson, Kathleen McCormack, and Yvette Puggish, provided insights about the introductory discussion that clarified the whole project. My parents, Tom and Bonnie Kime Scott, provided the same intellectual support they always have, with perceptive readings of the introduction and the Keats section. My wife, Colleen Flaherty, a biological scientist and environmental policy expert, helped me recognize and elaborate on the essential
