Title
The Dynamic Polarity of Romantic Light
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-2017
Department
German
Language
English
Publication Title
The Germanic Review
Abstract
This article studies how Johann Wilhelm Ritter proved that a specifically German Romantic approach turned a scientific impasse in the study of light into a new beginning. Ritter's thinking of polarity transcended a simple binarity and began the scientific formalization of invisible light. Seeing affinities where others could not, he projected ultraviolet radiation after William Herschel's discovery of infrared and, in the process, filtered a scientific concept of polarity through a philosophically Romantic lens, which allowed him to see experimental structures more clearly.
DOI
10.1080/00168890.2017.1370947
Recommended Citation
Pfannkuchen, Antje. "The Dynamic Polarity of Romantic Light," in "Writing Polarities: Romanticism and the Dynamic Unity of Poetry and Science," ed. Antje Pfannkkuchen and Leif Weatherby, special issue, The Germanic Review 92, no. 4 (2017): 355-367. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00168890.2017.1370947
Comments
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