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6 results

  • Chapter 6 - Natural History

  • from Part I - Origins
  • Edited by Peter Remien, Lewis-Clark State College, Idaho, Scott Slovic, University of Idaho
  • Book:
    Nature and Literary Studies
    Published online:
    22 July 2022
    Print publication:
    04 August 2022, pp 122-138

  • Summary

    In “Natural History,” Ashton Nichols traces the development of natural history in literature and scientific writing from the ancient works of Pliny the Elder and Aristotle to the later ideas of Buffon, Humboldt, and Darwin. Nichols examines how eighteenth-century colonial expansion influenced the spread of ideas about nature as well as how new ideas of nature were represented by Romantic authors like Mary Shelley. Culminating in analysis of the works of Erasmus Darwin and his grandson Charles Darwin, the chapter explores the paradigm shift away from a static and unchanging nature and toward a more modern understanding of nature as dynamic, interconnected, and indifferent to human needs and desires.

  • A Realistic Wittgenstein

  • Ashton Nichols
  • Journal:
    PMLA / Publications of the Modern Language Association of America / Volume 127 / Issue 3 / May 2012
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    23 October 2020, p. 647
    Print publication:
    May 2012
    • Article
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  • Browning's Modernism: The Infinite Moment as Epiphany

  • Ashton Nichols
  • Journal:
    Browning Institute Studies / Volume 11 / Spring 1983
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    24 October 2008, pp. 81-99

  • Browning's modernism has most often been seen as originating in his use of the dramatic monologue. Blending traditional poetic genres and emphasizing powerfully realized psychological states, the monologues have been described as a source of literary technique in authors as diverse as Conrad, Pound, Eliot, and Joyce. This strain of criticism suggests that Browning's sense of character is his primary strength and that it combines with his dramatic ability to place a fictional consciousness in accurately circumscribed historical time. These arguments leave one essential question unanswered – “to what extent is Browning sympathizing with his characters and to what extent is he passing judgment on them from some objective viewpoint outside the poem?” This question has become an increasingly important focus of critical discussion in recent years. The notion of sympathy is affirmed by defenders of Browning's moral relativism, while the idea of an absolute standard is advanced by those who defend his ability to identify with characters with whom he is actually in disagreement.

  • “The Drowned Man of Esthwaite”

  • Ashton Nichols
  • Journal:
    PMLA / Publications of the Modern Language Association of America / Volume 100 / Issue 2 / March 1985
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    23 October 2020, pp. 234-235
    Print publication:
    March 1985
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