Cart
Free US shipping over $10
Proud to be B-Corp

The Theater of Experiment Al Coppola (Assistant Professor of English, Assistant Professor of English, John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York)

The Theater of Experiment By Al Coppola (Assistant Professor of English, Assistant Professor of English, John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York)

Summary

The Theater of Experiment explores the crucial role of spectacle in the establishment of modern science. It analyzes eighteenth-century theatrical representations of science in order to demonstrate how experimental natural philosophy was itself a kind of performing art that was shaped by a wider culture of spectacle in the Enlightenment.

The Theater of Experiment Summary

The Theater of Experiment: Staging Natural Philosophy in Eighteenth-Century Britain by Al Coppola (Assistant Professor of English, Assistant Professor of English, John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York)

The first book-length study of the relationship between science and theater during the long eighteenth century in Britain, The Theater of Experiment explores the crucial role of spectacle in the establishment of modern science by analyzing how eighteenth-century science was "staged" in a double sense. On the one hand, this study analyzes science in performance: the way that science and scientists were made a public spectacle in comedies, farces, and pantomimes for purposes that could range from the satiric to the pedagogic to the hagiographic. But this book also considers the way in which these plays laid bare science as performance: that is, the way that eighteenth-century science was itself a kind of performing art, subject to regimes of stagecraft that traversed the laboratory, the lecture hall, the anatomy theater, and the public stage. Not only did the representation of natural philosophy in eighteenth-century plays like Thomas Shadwell's Virtuoso, Aphra Behn's The Emperor of the Moon, Susanna Centlivre's The Basset Table, and John Rich's Necromancer, or Harelequin Doctor Faustus, influence contemporary debates over the role that experimental science was to play public life, the theater shaped the very form that science itself was to take. By disciplining, and ultimately helping to legitimate, experimental philosophy, the eighteenth-century stage helped to naturalize an epistemology based on self-evident, decontextualized facts that might speak for themselves. In this, the stage and the lab jointly fostered an Enlightenment culture of spectacle that transformed the conditions necessary for the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge. Precisely because Enlightenment public science initiatives, taking their cue from the public stages, came to embrace the stagecraft and spectacle that Restoration natural philosophy sought to repress from the scene of experimental knowledge production, eighteenth-century science organized itself around not the sober, masculine "modest witness" of experiment but the sentimental, feminized, eager observer of scientific performance.

The Theater of Experiment Reviews

Coppola's deeply researched book brings to the table subtle readings of theatrical texts that historians of science have not previously considered relevant to their domain. For this, all scholars of the period should be grateful. ...Al Coppola has inspired a new round of research in this field and exemplified the best that can be hoped for in terms of its quality. * Jan Golinski, The Eighteenth Century *
Mr. Coppola's research is thorough, and his approach deeply and literally imaginative, evoking in the mind's eye how performances built on and then reinforced associations between the production of scientific knowledge and the pleasures of staged entertainment. ... Mr. Coppola's Theater of Experiment is an excellent and pleasurable performance. * John O'Brien, The Scriblerian and the Kit-Cats *
Coppola approaches the satires and theatre of Restoration and Hanoverian England to reveal the complexity of comprehension of early modern science. He suggests that these performances reveal a significant epistemological change following upon the increasing number of "spectacular demonstrations of matters of fact" (20) throughout the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. This is an intriguing notion, as it also converges with numerous lampoons of collectors, experimenters and the social contrivances of would-be scientific gentlemen. * Larry Stewart, Metascience *
The Theater of Experiment is such a valuable addition not solely for the scholarship of eighteenth-century natural philosophy but for the cultural history of the age at large. With his protean focus on visuality, Coppola is able to unearth a number of questions that, tying together scientific and literary production under the aegis of epistemology, are central for the study of the eighteenth-century culture. * Alessio Mattana (University of Leeds), The British Society for Literature and Science *
This remarkable book puts theater and science in conversation with one another in utterly new ways. Whether Coppola reads The Rehearsal from the perspective of a Restoration scientist, or looks at Isaac Newton as a harlequin, he fills this book with astonishing insights and arresting comparisons. I have not enjoyed a book so much in quite a while. * George E. Haggerty, SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 *
Drawing on work from theater studies and history of science, Al Coppola moves beyond generalizing or analogical connections between science and performance to show the rich imbrications between a culture of natural philosophy and a view of theatrical performance that saw it as acting to reform its audience's political opinions and moral outlook through mocking laughter. ... It will certainly interest historians of science who want to ground their understandings of public scientific performance in the specificities of eighteenth-century theatrical cultures, as well as those with interests in the long-run history of literature and science. * Matthew Paskins, Isis Journal *
... the Al Coppola monograph, with its intelligent way of intertwining public interventions of philosophy natural with the theatrical appearances of characters and situations clearly outputs from the field of science, constitutes a very outstanding contribution to the contextual and political knowledge of the theater of the Restoration, yes, but also some of its extensions throughout the eighteenth century." --Jesus Perez-Magallon, Bulletin of the Comediantes
The Theater of Experiment is a valuable and timely book that breaks new ground in examining the complex relations between science and theatrical practice. Building on the work of scholars in both science studies and theatre history, Al Coppola argues persuasively that the performative aspects of Restoration and eighteenth-century science--from theatrical satire in the 1670s and 80s to staged demonstrations of fundamental scientific principles in the 1750s and 60s--are crucial to understanding the culture of the period. * Robert Markley, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign *
Many have referred to Restoration and eighteenth-century English science as a spectacle, but Al Coppola's sophisticated and widely-ranging account is the first to explore in depth the interconnections between experimental science and popular theater. In sparkling prose, The Theater of Experiment reveals the profound cultural impacts of the new science as expressed by playwrights and experienced by audiences. * Anita Guerrini, Oregon State University *
Coppola's The Theater of Experiment reshapes performance studies and science studies by bringing the two fields together. Coppola freshly traces-in drama and pantomime-sales pitches for the new science and send-ups of the Royal Society and other science practitioners. It becomes a standard work about the dissemination of the new science to a wide public. * John Bender, Stanford University *
In his lucidly written and compellingly argued The Theater of Experiment, Al Coppola demonstrates what others have hypothesized but no one until now has subjected to thorough-going empirical tests at key points across the long eighteenth century: science and the theater staged reciprocating spectacles, together producing a general public for new visual experiences. Theater isn't always viewed as so intellectually central, nor is Natural Philosophy typically this much fun. * Joseph Roach, Yale University *

About Al Coppola (Assistant Professor of English, Assistant Professor of English, John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York)

Al Coppola is Assistant Professor of English at John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York.

Table of Contents

Introduction Science as Performance; Science in Performance Against the Virtuosi A Matter of Concern Prologue: "Bare Unfinish'd Histories": The Rehearsal of Natural Philosophy Buckingham amid the Virtuosi Bacon, Dryden, Sprat and the Labyrinth of Induction 1. The Spectacle of Experiment and the Politics of Virtuoso Satire in the 1670s The Modest Witness as Eager Spectator: Boyle in the Theater of Experiment The Virtuoso Discovered: Shadwell, Hooke and the Royal Society The Virtuoso Beyond Science: Bad Men and Bad Manners The Virtuoso as Reactionary: D'Urfey's Madam Fickle Virtuoso Satire and the Purification of Natural Philosophy 2. Retraining the Virtuoso's Gaze: The Emperor of the Moon and the Spectacles of Science and Politics The Virtuoso's Gaze Reformed: Tory Politics and Natural Philosophy "Hold Doting Fool, put on your Spectacles": The Show of Politics in the 1680s Spectacle against Enthusiasm: Behn's Emperor and the Exclusion Crisis Dryden's Albion to the Moon: Political and Theatrical Pressures in 1687 3. Physiology, Commerce and Comedy: Three Hours after Marriage and A Bold Stroke for a Wife The Virtuoso Vindicated From the Old Physiology to the New Psychology Soft Comedy and Whig Science Scriblerian Lampoon as Humoral Purge Centlivre's Humorous Circulation 4. Harlequin Newton: Faustus Pantomimes and Public Science in the 1720s "To Gaze Surpriz'd": The Panorama of Science, Magic and Pantomime "Surprizing Phaenomena" and the Attraction of Popular Newtonianism "One Wide Conflagration": The Pleasures of Harlequin Faustus Defoe, Conjuring and the Science of the Pantomimes The Force Field of Public Science 5. Modest Witnesses and Eager Spectators: Engendering Enlightenment Science "This Woman-hood of Yours Seems to be Mightily in the Way Appropriating Moliere's Learned Ladies Cibber, Centlivre and The Vanishing Virtuosa Enlightenment Periodicals and Science "for the Ladies" Embodying the Eager Spectator Epilogue: Rehearsing Spectacle From Spectacles to Spectators Reflexive Empiricism and Fielding's Spectators Bibliography

Additional information

NPB9780190269715
9780190269715
0190269715
The Theater of Experiment: Staging Natural Philosophy in Eighteenth-Century Britain by Al Coppola (Assistant Professor of English, Assistant Professor of English, John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York)
New
Hardback
Oxford University Press Inc
2016-10-06
280
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a new book - be the first to read this copy. With untouched pages and a perfect binding, your brand new copy is ready to be opened for the first time

Customer Reviews - The Theater of Experiment