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Uncertain Chances - Science, Skepticism, and Belief in Nineteenth-Century American Literature (Hardcover, New) Loot Price: R2,795
Discovery Miles 27 950
Uncertain Chances - Science, Skepticism, and Belief in Nineteenth-Century American Literature (Hardcover, New): Maurice S. Lee

Uncertain Chances - Science, Skepticism, and Belief in Nineteenth-Century American Literature (Hardcover, New)

Maurice S. Lee

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Loot Price R2,795 Discovery Miles 27 950 | Repayment Terms: R262 pm x 12*

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The role of chance changed in the nineteenth century, and American literature changed with it. Long dismissed as a nominal concept, chance was increasingly treated as a natural force to be managed but never mastered. New theories of chance sparked religious and philosophical controversies while revolutionizing the sciences as probabilistic methods spread from mathematics, economics, and sociology to physics and evolutionary biology. Chance also became more visible in everyday life as Americans struggled to control its power through weather forecasting, insurance, game theory, statistics, military science, and financial strategy. Uncertain Chances shows how the rise of chance shaped the way nineteenth-century American writers faced questions of doubt and belief. Poe in his detective fiction critiques probabilistic methods. Melville in Moby-Dick and beyond struggles to vindicate moral action under conditions of chance. Douglass and other African American authors fight against statistical racism. Thoreau learns to appreciate the play between nature's randomness and order. Dickinson works faithfully to render poetically the affective experience of chance-surprise. These and other nineteenth-century writers dramatize the inescapable dangers and wonderful possibilities of chance. Their writings even help to navigate extremes that remain with us today-fundamentalism and relativism, determinism and chaos, terrorism and risk-management, the rational confidence of the Enlightenment and the debilitating doubts of modernity.

General

Imprint: Oxford UniversityPress
Country of origin: United States
Release date: 2012
First published: December 2011
Authors: Maurice S. Lee (Associate Professor of English)
Dimensions: 237 x 164 x 23mm (L x W x T)
Format: Hardcover - Cloth over boards
Pages: 256
Edition: New
ISBN-13: 978-0-19-979757-8
Categories: Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > General
Books > Science & Mathematics > Science: general issues > Impact of science & technology on society
Books > Language & Literature > Literature: history & criticism > Literary studies > 19th century
Books > Humanities > History > American history > General
Books > History > American history > General
Books > Religion & Spirituality > General
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LSN: 0-19-979757-9
Barcode: 9780199797578

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