ENGL 440B (H01) - Honors/Seeing is Believing: How the Copernican Revolution Changed the Way We See Ourselves

This course explores the various ways that scientists, philosophers, poets, novelists, and literary theorists have tried to reconcile what we see (or think we see) with what we know (or think we know), from the ancient past to the 21st century. Our special focus will be on how the Copernican Revolution prompted a wholesale reevaluation of perception and knowledge. We will explore how writers, artists musicians, and philosophers embraced or lamented the enormous cultural and psychological changes that the Copernican evolution helped to introduce. We also will investigate how these changes continue to shape our worldview in the 21st-century.