Gilbert White, Anecdote, and Natural History

IF 0.2 3区文学 Q2 Arts and Humanities

STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 1500-1900 Pub Date : 2021-02-23 DOI:10.1353/sel.2020.0021

M. Sodeman

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Abstract:This article argues that by reclaiming the evidentiary function of anecdote, The Natural History of Selborne (1789) marks an inflection point in the writing of natural history. Gilbert White’s use of anecdote not only invested the form with renewed scientific precision but also invited readers to bring nature home to themselves. His approach paved the way for the late eighteenth-century obsession with anecdote to persist in popular works of Victorian science. For in the decades after White’s book appeared, naturalists and scientific popularizers followed him in making anecdote a fundamental epistemological and affective unit of natural history.

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吉尔伯特·怀特，《轶事与自然历史》

摘要:本文认为《塞尔本自然史》(1789)通过重新发挥轶事的证据功能，标志着自然史写作的一个转折点。吉尔伯特·怀特对轶事的运用不仅使形式具有了新的科学精确性，而且还邀请读者把自然带回家。他的方法为18世纪晚期对轶事的痴迷铺平了道路，这种痴迷持续存在于维多利亚时代的流行科学著作中。因为在怀特的书出版后的几十年里，博物学家和科学科普工作者跟随他，将轶事作为自然史的基本认识论和情感单位。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 1500-1900 LITERATURE, BRITISH ISLES-

CiteScore

0.40

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： SEL focuses on four fields of British literature in rotating, quarterly issues: English Renaissance, Tudor and Stuart Drama, Restoration and Eighteenth Century, and Nineteenth Century. The editors select learned, readable papers that contribute significantly to the understanding of British literature from 1500 to 1900. SEL is well known for thecommissioned omnibus review of recent studies in the field that is included in each issue. In a single volume, readers might find an argument for attributing a previously unknown work to Shakespeare or de-attributing a famous work from Milton, a study ofthe connections between class and genre in the Restoration Theater.