Mechanical Birds and Shapes of Ice: Hardy’s Vision of the ‘Blind Watchmaker’
Gillian Beer has shown that the Darwinian plot radically changed the way the world was perceived, hence the way literature was written. Symbols and metaphors are used to convey complex issues such as the mutations brought by science, radical changes which were so hard to grasp. Thus, many of Thomas...
| Published in: | Miranda |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
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Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès
2013
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.4000/miranda.676 http://journals.openedition.org/miranda/676 |
| Summary: | Gillian Beer has shown that the Darwinian plot radically changed the way the world was perceived, hence the way literature was written. Symbols and metaphors are used to convey complex issues such as the mutations brought by science, radical changes which were so hard to grasp. Thus, many of Thomas Hardy's images and metaphors, whether in his poems or his novels, can only be understood if one bears in mind the impact of Darwinism upon the Victorian frame of mind. This paper focuses on the way two key images (Hardy's vision of mechanical birds and ominous icebergs as cogs of destiny) may be highlighted by today's readings of the Darwinian legacy, such as Richard Dawkins' 1986 The Blind Watchmaker: both may be read as symptoms of an ontological paradigmatic shift, as Thomas Hardy grappled with the philosophical contradictions of a new era. Gillian Beer a mis en évidence l'impact de Darwin sur la littérature victorienne, comme si l'évolution s'était substituée à l'intrigue traditionnelle du roman. Métaphores et symboles permettent de rendre compte des mutations idéologiques issues des bouleversements scientifiques. Tel est bien le cas pour Thomas Hardy, dont l'œuvre porte l'empreinte des interrogations scientifiques et épistémologiques de son époque. Cet article s'inspire de la lecture que fait Richard Dawkins du Darwinisme, et notamment du concept de l'horloger aveugle, pour interroger, à travers quelques poèmes et Tess of the d'Urbervilles, deux images clefs de Hardy, l'oiseau mécanique et l'iceberg, et la façon dont le motif des rouages de la destinée révèle une mutation conceptuelle paradigmatique. |
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