Visions of volcanoes
This article explores written and visual representations of volcanoes and volcanic activity in the long nineteenth century, with the particular perspective of writers from the non-volcanic regions of northern Europe. I show how the language of fire was used in both first-hand and fictionalized accou...
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| Format: | Journal article |
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Open Library of Humanities
2017
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| _version_ | 1797083629244907520 |
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| author | Pyle, D |
| author_facet | Pyle, D |
| author_sort | Pyle, D |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | This article explores written and visual representations of volcanoes and volcanic activity in the long nineteenth century, with the particular perspective of writers from the non-volcanic regions of northern Europe. I show how the language of fire was used in both first-hand and fictionalized accounts of people’s interactions with volcanoes and experiences of volcanic phenomena, and how the routine and often implicit linkage of ‘fire’ with ‘combustion’, as an explanation for the deep forces at play within and beneath volcanoes, slowly changed as the formal scientific study of volcanoes developed. We will see how Vesuvius was used as a model volcano in science and literature and how, later, following devastating eruptions in Indonesia and the Caribbean, volcanoes took on a new dimension as contemporary agents of death and destruction. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T01:44:07Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:97d6bfd9-4393-424e-b890-8011b7398148 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T01:44:07Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Open Library of Humanities |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:97d6bfd9-4393-424e-b890-8011b73981482022-03-27T00:02:54ZVisions of volcanoesJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:97d6bfd9-4393-424e-b890-8011b7398148Symplectic Elements at OxfordOpen Library of Humanities2017Pyle, DThis article explores written and visual representations of volcanoes and volcanic activity in the long nineteenth century, with the particular perspective of writers from the non-volcanic regions of northern Europe. I show how the language of fire was used in both first-hand and fictionalized accounts of people’s interactions with volcanoes and experiences of volcanic phenomena, and how the routine and often implicit linkage of ‘fire’ with ‘combustion’, as an explanation for the deep forces at play within and beneath volcanoes, slowly changed as the formal scientific study of volcanoes developed. We will see how Vesuvius was used as a model volcano in science and literature and how, later, following devastating eruptions in Indonesia and the Caribbean, volcanoes took on a new dimension as contemporary agents of death and destruction. |
| spellingShingle | Pyle, D Visions of volcanoes |
| title | Visions of volcanoes |
| title_full | Visions of volcanoes |
| title_fullStr | Visions of volcanoes |
| title_full_unstemmed | Visions of volcanoes |
| title_short | Visions of volcanoes |
| title_sort | visions of volcanoes |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT pyled visionsofvolcanoes |