Book contents
- Nature and Literary Studies
- Cambridge Critical Concepts
- Nature and Literary Studies
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Origins
- Chapter 1 The Book of Nature
- Chapter 2 Pastoral
- Chapter 3 Wilderness
- Chapter 4 Lucretian Materialism
- Chapter 5 Natural Philosophy
- Chapter 6 Natural History
- Part II Development
- Part III Applications
- Further Reading
- Index
Chapter 4 - Lucretian Materialism
from Part I - Origins
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 July 2022
- Nature and Literary Studies
- Cambridge Critical Concepts
- Nature and Literary Studies
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Origins
- Chapter 1 The Book of Nature
- Chapter 2 Pastoral
- Chapter 3 Wilderness
- Chapter 4 Lucretian Materialism
- Chapter 5 Natural Philosophy
- Chapter 6 Natural History
- Part II Development
- Part III Applications
- Further Reading
- Index
Summary
In “Lucretian Materialism,” Brent Dawson examines how Lucretius’ first-century BCE epic poem The Nature of Things, which was lost and then rediscovered in the fifteenth century by Poggio Bracciolini, influenced the development literature and philosophy in the early modern period and beyond. Dawson contends that the poem supplies a model for thinking about plurality and universality, two of modern nature’s essential features. The chapter includes detailed definitions of key concepts from Lucretius’ poem including matter, void, swerve, image, and soul, and examines how these concepts influenced subsequent authors and philosophers like Milton, Hobbes, and Bacon. Dawson ends the chapter with a Lucretian interpretation of one of nature’s most important appearances in early modern English literature: Edmund Spenser’s Mutabilitie Cantos. He argues that the most Lucretian feature of Spenser’s deity Nature is her indeterminate character – she is universal insofar as she persists in mutability.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Nature and Literary Studies , pp. 87 - 102Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022