Chapter ID: CBB630890881

Inductive Science, Literary Theory, and the Occult in Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s “Suggestive” System (2017)

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Moving from the realm of the atomic to the realm of the literary, Anna Jones’s piece examines Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s work at the intersection of postmodern theory, Baconian induction, and the occult. In doing so, her chapter challenges the still prevalent tendency in literary studies to discount the value of Bulwer-Lytton’s work and his connection to marginal science, despite the fact that both Bulwer-Lytton and these popular sciences had a mass appeal for Victorian audiences. Beyond returning Bulwer-Lytton to his proper intellectual context, Jones even more provocatively shows that his “suggestive system” of intellectual transmission anticipates poststructural literary theory, which similarly takes its point of departure from the decoupling of author and text to determine meaning. (From Introduction, pages 11-12)

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Book Lara Pauline Karpenko; Shalyn Rae Claggett (2016) Strange Science: Investigating the Limits of Knowledge in the Victorian Age. unapi

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Authors & Contributors
Bell, Karl
Boa, Chen
Cordle, Daniel
DiMeo, Michelle
Floyd-Wilson, Mary
Gemelli, Benedino
Journals
Comparative Studies in Society and History
Configurations: A Journal of Literature, Science, and Technology
History and Philosophy of Logic
History of Science
HOPOS
Journal of Literature and Science
Publishers
Cambridge University Press
Stanford University
Manchester University Press
Olschki
University of Michigan Press
University of Pittsburgh Press
Concepts
Science and literature
Baconianism
Induction
Occult sciences
Science and culture
Methodology of science; scientific method
People
Bulwer-Lytton, Edward George
Bacon, Francis, 1st Baron Verulam
Whewell, William
Aristotle
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
Cowley, Abraham
Time Periods
19th century
17th century
18th century
20th century
20th century, early
20th century, late
Places
England
Great Britain
Bengal (India)
China
Europe
Spain
Institutions
Royal Society
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