Culture of Accidents

by Witmore, Michael

• ISBN13: 9780804735568
• ISBN10: 0804735565
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-10-01
• Publisher: Stanford Univ Pr

Summary

Collapsing buildings, unexpected meetings in the marketplace, monstrous births, encounters with pirates at seathese and other unforeseen "accidents" at the turn of the seventeenth century in England acquired unprecedented significance in the early modern philosophical and cultural imagination. Drawing on intellectual history, cultural criticism, and rhetorical theory, this book chronicles the narrative transformation of "accident" from a philosophical dead end to an astonishing occasion for revelation and wonder in early modern religious life, dramatic practice, and experimental philosophy. Embracing the notion that accident was a concept with both learned and popular appeal, the book traces its evolution through Aristotelian, Scholastic, and Calvinist thought into a range of early modern texts. It suggests that for many English writers, accidental events raised fundamental questions about the nature of order in the world and the way that order should be apprehended. Alongside texts by such canonical figures as Shakespeare and Bacon, this study draws on several lesser-known authors of sensational news accounts about accidents that occurred around the turn of the seventeenth century. The result is a cultural anatomy of accidents as philosophical problem, theatrical conceit, spiritual landmark, and even a prototype for Baconian "experiment," one that provides a fresh interpretation of the early modern engagement with contingency in intellectual and cultural terms.

Author Biography

Michael Witmore is Assistant Professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University.

Table of Contents

Note on Modernization	ix
Introduction: A Narrative Wonder	1	(16)
Early Modern Accidents and an Aristotelian Tradition	17	(25)
Exemplary Accidents from Cicero to Jean Calvin	42	(20)
The Avoidance of Ends in the Comedy of Errors	62	(20)
Hamlet Interrupted	82	(29)
Accident and the Invention of Knowledge in Francis Bacon's Natural Philosophy	111	(19)
Wonders Taken for Signs: The Blackfriars Accident of 1623	130	(23)
Epilogue	153	(6)
Notes	159	(46)
Bibliography	205	(14)
Index	219