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- Title
Francis Bacon and the Art of Misinterpretation.
- Authors
WERLIN, JULIANNE
- Abstract
Recent research has shown how Francis Bacon drew on Renaissance practices of reading and writing to propose a new method for understanding nature. Yet Bacon was well aware that such techniques were vulnerable to error, miscommunication, and failure. Instances of misinterpretation in his utopian fantasy New Atlantis reveal that his dream of a legible world accounts for the possibility of misreading. Bacon's characters and his audience are invited to interpret the text's symbols, but they are denied the basis for adequate interpretation. The paradoxes that arise from this strange position affirm the utility of Bacon's method and expose some of its limits.
- Subjects
BACON, Francis, 1561-1626; RENAISSANCE; READING interests research; WRITING; NEW Atlantis (Book)
- Publication
PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, 2015, Vol 130, Issue 2, p236
- ISSN
0030-8129
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1632/pmla.2015.130.2.236