Nowhere is distance so near-at-hand as in Enlightenment culture. Whether in the telescopic surveys of early astronomers, the panoramas of painters, the diaries of travelers, the prospects of landscape architects, or the tales of novelists, distance is never far in the background of the works and deeds of long-eighteenth-century artists, authors, and adventurers.
Hemispheres and Stratospheres draws that background into the foreground. Recognizing distance as a central concern of the Enlightenment, this volume offers eight essays on distance in art and literature; on cultural transmission and exchange over distance; and on distance as a topic in science, a theme in literature, and a central issue in modern research methods. Through studies of landscape gardens, architecture, imaginary voyages, transcontinental philosophical exchange, and cosmological poetry,
Hemispheres and Stratospheres unfurls the early history of a distance culture that influences our own era of global information exchange, long-haul flights, colossal skyscrapers, and space tourism.
Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.
Industry Reviews
"With his characteristic intellectual amplitude, Kevin L. Cope presents in this volume essays on the eighteenth-century 'prospect' in art and literature, the function of distance in Italian architecture, the European travel of two South Indian priests, the dislocations and adaptations of 'long distance' imaginary voyages, and the possible advantages of 'distant' reading-among others. While novel in its core supposition, the volume pays respect to an older, distinguished scholarly orientation that is perfectly in line with our own multidisciplinary moment: the history of ideas." -- John Scanlan * coeditor of The Age of Johnson *
"In eight wide-ranging essays by prominent scholars, this groundbreaking collection challenges how Enlightenment and long-eighteenth-century researchers need to reassess the interdisciplinary nature, cultural richness, and international scope of this topic. The study ventures into new territories in the international and cultural terrain of distance studies, uncovering uncharted research and future prospects in the digital humanities." -- Mark Pedreira * Professor of English, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras *
"In eight wide-ranging essays by prominent scholars, this groundbreaking collection challenges how Enlightenment and long-eighteenth-century researchers need to reassess the interdisciplinary nature, cultural richness, and international scope of this topic. The study ventures into new territories in the international and cultural terrain of distance studies, uncovering uncharted research and future prospects in the digital humanities." -- Mark Pedreira * Professor of English, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras *
"With his characteristic intellectual amplitude, Kevin L. Cope presents in this volume essays on the eighteenth-century 'prospect' in art and literature, the function of distance in Italian architecture, the European travel of two South Indian priests, the dislocations and adaptations of 'long distance' imaginary voyages, and the possible advantages of 'distant' reading-among others. While novel in its core supposition, the volume pays respect to an older, distinguished scholarly orientation that is perfectly in line with our own multidisciplinary moment: the history of ideas." -- John Scanlan * coeditor of The Age of Johnson *