Traces the history of geological travel writing about Scotland across
the historical periods of the Scottish Enlightenment and British
Romanticism
Discovering the Footsteps of Time probes the development of a
distinctively Scottish tradition of geological travel writing from the
seventeenth to early nineteenth century. The tradition tracks a fertile
interaction of scientific and aesthetic themes, mediated through
literary techniques, which highlights the emergence of 'Romanticism' as
such; a distinctive, recognisable cultural movement of taste and style.
Making an important new contribution to our understanding of the
'discovery' and representation of Scotland in the long eighteenth
century, the book explores why Scotland's topography has been decisive
in the history of geology to such a great extent. Written by a literary
academic rather than a geologist, the book is as much concerned with
textual strategies and the aesthetic experience of geological discovery
as with geology itself.
Key Features
- Adds to our understanding of the 'discovery of Scotland' in the 18th
and early 19th century, developing a new account of the literary,
aesthetic and geological meanings of 'the land of mountain and flood'
in the period
- Offers new insights about James Hutton's geological theory by
attending to his geological travel writing about Scotland, and also
locates Hutton's work within wider geological debates in and about
Scotland
- Builds on previous work on the literariness of scientific writing in
the 'second scientific revolution'
- Contributes to research on 'Romantic Scotland' and on the transition
from Enlightenment to Romantic scientific travel writing
