Order through Fluctuation: Social Evolution in Florence in George Eliot’s Romola
0
조회
0
다운로드
0
인용
0
참고문헌
키워드
초록
Although George Eliot scholarship has been developing its discussions with a variety of topics, the relation between Eliot and science has not yet been much explored. To enrich current Eliot scholarship, this essay examines Eliot’s Romola (1862) within the Victorian thermodynamic popularization rhetoric, which connects thermodynamics to society. In the mid-nineteenth century, Victorian physicists have suggested a conceptual link between thermodynamic principles and society as a way of social prophecy: whether society goes toward order or disorder. While taking into account the nineteenth century thermodynamics’ definitions of order and disorder, this essay more importantly draws upon Belgian physicist Ilya Prigogine’s (1918-2003) reconceptualized thermodynamics that complicates the classical thermodynamics and suggests the alternative term: the spontaneous order out of disorder. This theoretical term will be further applied to the analysis of the main historical event – Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola’s social renovation – in Renaissance Florence in Romola. In analyzing the chained process of the spontaneous order out of disorder in the evolution of Savonarola’s reform, I argue that the microscopic evolving process of Savonarola’s renovation represents a macroscopic social evolution in Florence, which undergoes the continual evolving process, as well. At the end, I conclude that Eliot’s recreation of Renaissance Florence in Romola is her own attempt to prophesy the directions and ways of social evolution in the middle of rapid change and increasing complexities during her times. Therefore, this essay is an interdisciplinary case study that intersects in the three different areas of literary analysis, historical study, and thermodynamic theory.
Abstract
Although George Eliot scholarship has been developing its discussions with a variety of topics, the relation between Eliot and science has not yet been much explored. To enrich current Eliot scholarship, this essay examines Eliot’s Romola (1862) within the Victorian thermodynamic popularization rhetoric, which connects thermodynamics to society. In the mid-nineteenth century, Victorian physicists have suggested a conceptual link between thermodynamic principles and society as a way of social prophecy: whether society goes toward order or disorder. While taking into account the nineteenth century thermodynamics’ definitions of order and disorder, this essay more importantly draws upon Belgian physicist Ilya Prigogine’s (1918-2003) reconceptualized thermodynamics that complicates the classical thermodynamics and suggests the alternative term: the spontaneous order out of disorder. This theoretical term will be further applied to the analysis of the main historical event – Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola’s social renovation – in Renaissance Florence in Romola. In analyzing the chained process of the spontaneous order out of disorder in the evolution of Savonarola’s reform, I argue that the microscopic evolving process of Savonarola’s renovation represents a macroscopic social evolution in Florence, which undergoes the continual evolving process, as well. At the end, I conclude that Eliot’s recreation of Renaissance Florence in Romola is her own attempt to prophesy the directions and ways of social evolution in the middle of rapid change and increasing complexities during her times. Therefore, this essay is an interdisciplinary case study that intersects in the three different areas of literary analysis, historical study, and thermodynamic theory.
참고문헌 (21)
- Anger, Suzy, "A Companion to British Literature: Volume IV: Victorian and Twentieth-Century Literature (1837-2000)", pp.52~67 (2014), Wiley Blackwell
- Bartlett, Gillian C., "The Renaissance in Italy: A History" (2019), Hackett Publishing Company, Inc
- Bullen, J. B., "The Myth of the Renaissance in Nineteenth-Century Writing" (1994), Oxford UP
- Burckhardt, Jacob, "The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy: An Essay" (1950), Phaidon Publishers
- Burke, Peter, "The Italian Renaissance: Culture and Society in Italy" (2000), Polity Press
- Currin, John M., "Henry VII, France and the Holy League of Venice : The Diplomacy of Balance", Historical Research, 82(217), pp.526~546 (2009)
- Eliot, George, "Romola" (1996), Penguin Books
- "OED Online" (2023), Oxford UP
- Fraser, Hilary, "The Victorians and Renaissance Italy" (1992), Blackwell
- Greenblatt, Stephen, "The Swerve: How the World Became Modern" (2011), W. W. Norton
- Hayles, Katherine N., "Chaos and Order: Complex Dynamics in Literature and Science", pp.1~36 (1991), The U of Chicago P
- Kuskey, Jessica, "Our Mutual Engine: The Economics of Victorian Thermodynamics", Victorian Literature and Culture, 41, pp.75~89 (2013)
- Myers, Greg, "Nineteenth-Century Popularizations of Thermodynamics and the Rhetoric of Social Prophecy", Victorian Studies, 29(1), pp.35~66 (1985)
- Najemy, John M., "A History of Florence 1200-1575" (2006), Blackwell Publishing
- Østermark-Johansen, Lene, "Victorians and Edwardian Responses to the Italian Renaissance", pp.1~6 (2016), Routledge
- Porush, David, "Chaos and Order: Complex Dynamics in Literature and Science", pp.54~84 (1991), The U of Chicago P
- Prigogine, Ilya, "Goals in a Global Community: The Original Background Papers for Goals for Mankind, a Report to the Club of Rome. Vol. 1", pp.1~63 (1977), Pergamon Press
- Prigogine, Ilya, "Order out of Chaos : Man’s New Dialogue with Nature" (1984), New Science Library
- Prigogine, Ilya, "Evolution and Consciousness: Human Systems in Transition", pp.93~126 (1976), Addison-Wesley
- "OED Online" (2023), Oxford UP
- Yoon, Hye Joon, "Dorclote Mill: A Note on Social History in George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss", The Journal of English Language and Literature, 40(4), pp.689~699 (1994)