Hemispheres and Stratospheres: The Idea and Experience of Distance in the International Enlightenment [Paperback]

Recognizing distance as a central concern of the Enlightenment, this volume offers eight essays on distance in art and literature; on cultural transmission and exchange over distance; and on distance as a topic in science, a theme in literature, and a central issue in modern research methods. Through studies of landscape gardens, architecture, imaginary voyages, transcontinental philosophical exchange, and cosmological poetry,Hemispheres and Stratospheresunfurls the early history of a distance culture that influences our own era of global information exchange, long-haul flights, colossal skyscrapers, and space tourism.

Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.
 Hemispheres and Stratospheresoffers eight essays that address the art, literature, science, and politics of distance during the long eighteenth century. This volume celebrates the intercontinental expansiveness of Enlightenment distance culture—a culture that continues to encourage modern pursuits such as space travel, tourism, telecommunication, multiculturalism, and international research collaboration.KEVIN L. COPEis Adams Professor of English Literature and a member of the comparative literature faculty at Louisiana State University. Among his many books and edited collections areCriteria of Certainty,John Locke Revisited, andIn and After the Beginning. He is also editor of the annual journal 1650–1850:Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era.
List of Illustrations
Introduction
Part I: Best Seen at a Distance: The Art of the Far Away
Looking Down: Observations on Elevation, Prospect Vision, and Eighteenth-Century Imagination
Roger D. Lund
Space and the Meaning of Distance in Bernardo Vittone’s Architecture
William Stargard
Change of Air, Change of Self: Long Distance and Human Adaptability in Imaginary Voyages lÊ