Reading Nature: Emerson, Cuvier, Lyell, Goethe and the Intricacies of a Much-Quoted Trope

Author: Mehne, Philipp

Source: Comparative American Studies, Volume 6, Number 2, June 2008 , pp. 103-122(20)

Publisher: Maney Publishing

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Abstract:

Whilst Emerson's visit to the Paris Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle in 1833 apparently ignited within him a serious and long-term interest in natural science, his relationship to the work of naturalists Georges Cuvier, Etienne Geoffroy, George Lyell, and Charles Darwin remained superficial. The analysis of a trope Emerson shares with nineteenth-century discourse on nature and the natural sciences reveals the rifts between Emerson's hermeneutical assumptions and the position of the leading naturalists of his time. If, for Emerson, the eclectic hunter of ideas, the natural sciences were of significant influence, it was an influence rooted in misreading.

Keywords: EMERSON; CUVIER; LYELL; DARWIN; GOETHE; NATURAL SCIENCES

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1179/147757008X280812

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