We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Vestiges of the Phoenix: De Quincey, Kant and the Heavens.
- Authors
Murray, Alex
- Abstract
This essay examines the context surrounding Thomas De Quincey's 1846 essay, 'System of the Heavens as Revealed by Lord Rosse's Telescope', placing it in relation to the thesis of Robert Chambers' then anonymous proto-evolutionary Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation. I argue that De Quincey's essay - which never mentions Vestiges - can be read as an attempt to refute the 'succession' model of evolution and development put forward by Chambers, and that it does so by turning to Immanuel Kant's 'Phoenix of Nature'. The article traces the complex relationship between De Quincey and Kant's model of the Heavens through a comprehensive analysis of both Kant and astronomy in De Quincey's voluminous body of work, complicating our understanding of De Quincey's relationship to the 'destroyer' of Königsberg, and revealing the crisis of experience that emerged in De Quincey's engagement with Kant and the Heavens.
- Subjects
ESSAYS; DE Quincey, Thomas, 1785-1859; KANT, Immanuel, 1724-1804; ASTRONOMY; TRANSCENDENTALISM (Philosophy); IDEALISM; EVOLUTIONARY theories; CHAMBERS, Robert, 1802-1871
- Publication
Victoriographies, 2011, Vol 1, Issue 2, p243
- ISSN
2044-2416
- Publication type
Literary Criticism
- DOI
10.3366/vic.2011.0031