The work of the sun [[electronic resource] ] : literature, science, and political economy, 1760-1860 / / Ted Underwood

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910451081003321
• Autore: Underwood Ted
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: New York, : Palgrave Macmillan, 2005
• ISBN: 1-281-36543-2; 9786611365431; 1-4039-8190-6
• Edizione: [1st ed.]
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (253 p.)
• Disciplina: 820.9/36
• Soggetti: English literature - 19th century - History and criticism; Politics and literature - Great Britain - History - 19th century; Politics and literature - Great Britain - History - 18th century; Literature and science - Great Britain - History - 19th century; Literature and science - Great Britain - History - 18th century; English literature - 18th century - History and criticism; Electronic books.; Sun In literature
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (p. [221]-233) and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Cover; Contents; Acknowledgments; List of Abbreviations; List of Illustrations; Introduction; 1 Light as Fluid Agency; 2 Energy and the Autonomy of Middle-Class Work; 3 Apollo, God of Enterprise; 4 Cowper's Spontaneous Task; 5 Wordsworth and the Homelessness of Engines; 6 Sunlight and the Reification of Culture; 7 Energy Becomes Labor: The Role of Engineering Theory; 8 Productivism and the Popularization of the First Law of Thermodynamics; Notes; Bibliography; Index
• Sommario/riassunto: At the end of the Eighteenth century, British writers began to celebrate work in a strangely indirect way. Instead of describing diligence as an attribute of character, poets and novelists increasingly identified work with impersonal 'energies' akin to natural force. Chemists traced mental and muscular work back to its source in sunlight, giving rise to the ; claim (beloved by Nineteenth-century journalists) that 'all the labour done under the sun is really done by it'. The Work of The Sun traces the emergence of this model of work, exploring its sources in middle-class consciousness and its implications for British literature and science.