Call for papers for a panel at the Nineteenth-Century Studies Association (NCSA) 33rd Annual Conference "Spiritual Matters/Matters of the Spirit"

Sacred Matter: The Spiritual in the Age of Science

The nineteenth-century has unequivocally been regarded as the era of
scientific materialism, notable for major developments in all branches
of the physical, biological, and earth sciences that changed
epistemological foundations forever. At the same time, matters of faith
and spiritual belief tenaciously endured not only among the religious
but also among many secular scientists and philosophers. Beginning in
Germany with the Naturphilosophie of the Romantics and the harmonious
order of Alexander von Humboldt’s Cosmos, and continuing through monism
and theosophy at the end of the century, nature continued to be regarded
as having a spiritual component, whether immanent or transcendent. This
panel seeks to explore the work of artists, designers and architects who
explored this fusion. What forms did these mergers take? How did
artists convey their message within depictions of the natural world?
What were their motivations? Examples might include artists who
responded to scientific theories in which matter was encoded with a
spiritual dimension, to new forms of nature religions, to science
coupled with folk literature and legends, or with the mystical and/or
paranormal. Topics could address aspects of pantheism and
transcendentalism, which were influenced by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and
by Herbert Spencer’s ‘softened’ version of Darwinism, or Ernst Haeckel’s
monism in which sentient cells with ‘souls’ powered evolutionary
development, or the new visual world of microscopic life. Papers are
especially welcome which consider the artistic use of illustrations in
scientific texts and popular culture.

Please e-mail abstracts (250 words) for 20-minute papers that provide
the author's name and paper title in the heading, as well as a one-page
c.v to Mortonmarsha10gmail.com and blarsonuwf.edu