Organic Form: The Life Of An Idea
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
Markings: Previous owner
What does it mean for art, literature, or nature to possess an organic quality — and how did this deceptively simple idea reshape centuries of intellectual thought? Organic Form: The Life of an Idea, edited by G. S. Rousseau, chronicles the remarkable evolution of the organic metaphor from its roots in classical philosophy through its transformative influence on Romantic aesthetics, literary criticism, and the natural sciences. Drawing together a rich collection of scholarly essays, the volume presents the concept of organic form not as a static doctrine but as a living, contested idea that wound its way through biology, poetics, and cultural theory alike. Each contribution illuminates a different facet of the idea's journey, mapping the intellectual terrain with precision and critical sophistication. Rousseau, writing as Associate Professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles, assembles a cast of leading scholars whose work argues persuasively for the centrality of organic form to the Western intellectual tradition. The collection sits at a productive crossroads between literary theory, the history of ideas, and the philosophy of nature, appealing equally to students of Romanticism, aesthetics, and the history of science. Published by the distinguished house of Routledge & Kegan Paul, the volume carries the weight of serious academic inquiry while remaining accessible to any reader curious about the deep grammar of creativity. One question lingers long after the final page: if form itself can be alive, what does that mean for the ideas we thought we already understood?
Author: G. S. Rousseau
Format: Hardback
Genre: Literary theory
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
Markings: Previous owner
What does it mean for art, literature, or nature to possess an organic quality — and how did this deceptively simple idea reshape centuries of intellectual thought? Organic Form: The Life of an Idea, edited by G. S. Rousseau, chronicles the remarkable evolution of the organic metaphor from its roots in classical philosophy through its transformative influence on Romantic aesthetics, literary criticism, and the natural sciences. Drawing together a rich collection of scholarly essays, the volume presents the concept of organic form not as a static doctrine but as a living, contested idea that wound its way through biology, poetics, and cultural theory alike. Each contribution illuminates a different facet of the idea's journey, mapping the intellectual terrain with precision and critical sophistication. Rousseau, writing as Associate Professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles, assembles a cast of leading scholars whose work argues persuasively for the centrality of organic form to the Western intellectual tradition. The collection sits at a productive crossroads between literary theory, the history of ideas, and the philosophy of nature, appealing equally to students of Romanticism, aesthetics, and the history of science. Published by the distinguished house of Routledge & Kegan Paul, the volume carries the weight of serious academic inquiry while remaining accessible to any reader curious about the deep grammar of creativity. One question lingers long after the final page: if form itself can be alive, what does that mean for the ideas we thought we already understood?