Natural Classicism: Essays on Literature and Science

by Frederick Turner

Natural Classicism is a work like no other- far-reaching, even visionary in its examination of the interconnectedness of nature and human endeavor. The book showcases Turner's exploration of- and attempt to integrate- principles of literature, art, music, biology, psychology, anthropology, linguistics, and aesthetics. It is Turner's contention that a nonreductive reconciliation of disciplines is possible, and he proposes a new "great chain of being" that is "evolutionary and dynamic, and both proved and empowered by the achievements of the great detour the West took through materialistic empiricism."

284 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Frederick Turner is the author or editor of a dozen books, including Into the Heart of Life: Henry Miller at One Hundred. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Troy Camplin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Turner's first thoughts on what would be his fully-developed new paradigm for the arts.

[Connie Kronlokken]

Interesting early thinking from Frederick Turner, especially on how the arts, perform into being the world.

Ritual served evolution. Reading is actually performance. "The morally valuable kind of literature is that which ennobles its reader/performer, and the morally evil kind is the kind which seduces into corruption the 'actor' of it; not directly as a person, but indirectly through the performance."

"Thoreau independently intuited both the anthropological perspective and the essential spirit of evolution," finding his way toward a view of people as part of nature.