Investigating Edgar Allan Poe's "Eureka"

His Theory of Everything
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-3-032-23380-6
Verlag: Springer

Buch, Englisch, 223 Seiten, Format (B × H): 153 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 394 g

This book seeks to untangle the cosmological treatise on the relationship between the physical and spiritual universe found in Edgar Allan Poe's  , the work he considered to be his but which was also largely ignored by scholars until it caught the attention of physicists, astronomers, and other scientists in the 1990s. Since its publication in 1848,  has confused readers and stirred controversy among critics who couldn't decide whether or not Poe was serious, joking, or mad in writing the work, which he initially delivered as a lecture and then published featuring both the subtitles "A Prose Poem" and "An Essay on the Material and Spiritual Universe." Within it, he explored epistemology, theology, philosophy, physics, astronomy, cosmology, poetry, God, justice, and the problem of evil and laid out the basic principles of what would later be known as Big Bang Cosmology, Chaos Theory, Relativity Theory, and biological evolution. This volume is the first to demonstrate how all of the diverse pieces of the work fit together, including how it could be called both a prose poem and an essay, how Poe could be serious about his argument without losing his sense of humor, and how Poe's rejection of reductionism presents a helpful model for twenty-first century inquiry.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Poe, Harry Lee

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Englische Literatur Amerikanische Literatur
• Naturwissenschaften Astronomie Kosmologie, Urknalltheorie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1: It Was a Dark and Stormy Night.- Chapter 2 : Poe Quoting Himself and Others.- Chapter 3 : What We Can Know and How We Can Know It.- Chapter 4 : The Science of Eureka.- Chapter 5 : Poetry as the Rhythmical Creation of Beauty.- Chapter 6 : The Spiritual Universe.- Chapter 7 : Conclusion.

Über Autor(innen)

Harry Lee Poe  is Charles Colson Professor of Faith and Culture at Union University, USA. He has published more than 200 articles and has written or contributed to over 45 books, including works on C. S. Lewis and Edgar Allan Poe. He also previously served as President of the Edgar Allan Poe Foundation and Museum and of the American Scientific Affiliation.