Romantic Dynamics

Romantic Dynamics creatively confronts Romantic poetry with a wide range of exotic concepts associated with the "new physics" of relativity and quantum to uncover their shared concerns for indeterminacy, uncertainty, relativity, and complexity in a chaotic universe. This interdisciplinary work traces the elaboration of dynamical models of cosmos and consciousness in works by Blake, Byron, Coleridge, the Shelleys, and Wordsworth, finding in those works an exploration of the interpenetration of psyche and phenomena.

Creatively collides Romantic poetry with a wide range of exotic concepts associated with the "new physics" of relativity and quantum to uncover their shared concerns for indeterminacy, uncertainty, relativity, and complexity in a chaotic universe.

Booknews

Lussier (English, Arizona State U.) calls into question the assumed tension between Romantic poetry and physical theory, arguing that the Romantics did in fact use and depend upon contemporary physical theory, including cosmology and neuroscience. He explores the work of several poets, covering topics such as Blake's "Deep Ecology," the physical dynamics of Coleridge's , and temporality and memory in Byron's . Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Mark S. Lussier is Associate Professor of Literature in the Department of English at Arizona State University.