Anomalous Apparitions of Light in Colonial America: Visions of Comets, New Stars, the Aurora Borealis, and Rainbows

Abstract

This dissertation examines the body of literature that formed around anomalous light apparitions (comets, new stars, the aurora borealis, and rainbows) as it explores questions about the representation and response to celestial and meteorological phenomena during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in colonial America. I further consider the ways that these texts’ meanings are informed by rational scientific thought and by other non-scientific or non-rational, emotive, or aesthetic modes of thinking. I consider how these phenomena elicit a set of empirical yet emotionally-charged observational practices that complicate how we understand the roles of the rational and the non-rational in the scientific literature of this period. I argue that non-rational passionate investments are evident within or as part of the period’s rational scientific literature; they act as the impetus for scientific inquiry therefore forming an integral part of the scientific endeavor. This dissertation further explores how the practice of writing about these phenomena generates and facilitates the formation of communities of amateur scientific observers in colonial America. I further investigate how practices of data collection contribute to knowledge about the regular and irregular behaviors of celestial bodies, and how this knowledge impacts everyday practices essential for survival such as farming and travelling. What science writing from this period demonstrates is the ability for multiple ways of thinking to be in play simultaneously; these texts show how several worldviews (i.e. science, Puritanism, popular religion) are intrinsic to each other. Because of their liminality, these texts function outside of traditional categories such science, religion, and natural philosophy. Furthermore, they destabilize traditional conceptions of genre with their blend of rational and non-rational modes of thought and their incorporation of fact and fiction. While I treat these literary texts within their historical contexts, I am also interested in the ways in which these texts reach modern audiences, particularly in academia at a time when the humanities and sciences are positioned against one another.