Human Nature at Sea
Nineteenth-century Americans and Europeans envisaged the ocean as a sublime space, at once frightening and inviting. Romantic poets such as Byron and Shelley celebrated the sea as a seductive substance with which we humans might seek to merge, dissolving our bodies into the nourishing matrix o...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
| Published: |
Paradigm Publishers
2011
|
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/61970 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0859-5881 |
| Summary: | Nineteenth-century Americans and Europeans
envisaged the ocean as a sublime
space, at once frightening and inviting. Romantic
poets such as Byron and Shelley celebrated
the sea as a seductive substance with which we humans might seek to
merge, dissolving our bodies into the nourishing
matrix of life itself. A kindred vision
persists today, underwriting ecologically
minded suggestions that we human beings
tune more deeply into our environmentally
embattled Earth. According to such views,
humans might amplify our ecological consciousness
by recognizing that an oceanic
past swims through our most intimate substances:
our blood, sweat, and tears. |
|---|