The Horror of Natural History and Spenser's Bestiary of Extremophiles

dc.contributor.authorMcAdams, Alexander Loween_US
dc.date.accessioned2017-02-24T00:11:03Zen_US
dc.date.available2017-02-24T00:11:03Zen_US
dc.date.issued2017en_US
dc.description1st prize winner of the Friends of Fondren Library Graduate Research Awards, 2017.en_US
dc.descriptionThis paper was originally prepared for Course ENGL 605 (Fall 2016): Third-Year Writing Seminar, given by Professor Sarah Ellenzweig, Department of English.en_US
dc.description.abstractThis essay investigates a sea voyage in Book II of Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene, to which scholars have seldom paid much attention. I argue that the aquatic life forms the Knight of Temperance encounters on his journey shows Spenser’s investment in natural history, a leading force in the scientific culture of his day. By deploying original research, I assert that a careful examination of this passage shows Spenser’s theorization of extreme life, thereby anticipating our modern scientific focus on extremophiles, temperate environments, and the search for extraterrestrial life. This paper ends by proposing that a philosophical conundrum lies at the core of discovery, leaving humans once again questioning their status in the universe.en_US
dc.identifier.citationMcAdams, Alexander Lowe. "The Horror of Natural History and Spenser's Bestiary of Extremophiles." (2017) Rice University: <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/1911/93992">https://hdl.handle.net/1911/93992</a>.en_US
dc.identifier.digitalMcAdamsen_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1911/93992en_US
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisherRice Universityen_US
dc.rightsThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.en_US
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/en_US
dc.subjectEnglishen_US
dc.titleThe Horror of Natural History and Spenser's Bestiary of Extremophilesen_US
dc.type.dcmiTexten_US
dc.type.genreResearch paperen_US
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