Francis Bacon and the Seventeenth-Century Intellectual Discourse [Hardcover]

This book explores the resistance of three English poets to Francis Bacon's project to restore humanity to Adamic mastery over nature, moving beyond a discussion of the tension between Bacon and these poetic voices to suggest theywere also debating the narrative of humanity's intellectual path.Getting Back to Eden: Bacon and Utopian Literature 'Racked Carcasses make Ill Anatomies': John Donne and the Science of Torture 'Companions of my Thoughts More Green': Damon's Baconian Sexing of Nature A 'Fantastic Mind' and a 'Fixed Heart': Rochester and the Disciplining of the Mind

Francis Bacon and the Seventeenth-Century Intellectual Discourse provides new insight on the Baconian debates by examining the works of Donne, Marvell, and Rochester as resistance to Bacon s theory of scientific progression. With sharp, close readings, Funari persuasively demonstrates the argumentative power of seventeenth-century poetry as a counter narrative to what would become the dominant ideology of Western science. - Amy L. Tigner, assistant professor of English, University of Texas, Arlington

A fascinating, well-argued comparison between Francis Bacon's narrative of recovering human dominion over nature and seventeenth-century skeptics who deny its possibility. Funari draws insightful parallels with today's proponents of technological solutions and environmental philosophers who propose new ways of living with the more-than-human world. Of interest to anyone who wishes to see how history and literature can inform the roots of today's environmental crisis. - Carolyn Merchant, professor, University of California, Berkeley and author of The Death of Nature and Reinventing Eden

An original and interesting approach to the clash of cultures - the established literary world reacting against the rise of the scientific worldview - this book raises intriguing questions for anyone studying early modern thought. - Linda Anderson, professor of English, ls.