Chaos in Art and Literature

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Chaos in Art and Literature

Abstract: The following paper deals with the expanding world of the new science of chaos. Chaos is unique because it can be applied to all the core sciences, and more importantly it can be applied to subjects not considered to be science. The paper below deals with the evidence of chaos in literature and art, and how it functions in this world. While many aspects of the chaos present in art and literature are different from the science of chaos, some similarities still emerged and can be seen when examined closely. Chaos was found to be especially evident in the works of W.B. Yeats, John Milton, Wallace Stevens, William Blake, Jackson Pollock, and in the works of those involved in the Futurist Movement.

Chaos is a word with many applications. It has been used to describe situations that lack order, and at the same time it has been used to describe underlying mechanisms of the core sciences. Interestingly enough, chaos now can be found in other realms of the scholarly world, most notably in art and literature. By examining the literature of William Blake, W.B. Yeats, John Milton, and Wallace Stevens, and the art of the futurist movement and of Jackson Pollock chaos can be found as can its connection to the more scientific world.

The chaos found in literature is not something too entirely modern. In fact one of the first examples of chaos in literature according to Ala'a H. Fawad was found in William Blake's poem "Auguries of Innocence." The poem describes how a world can exist as a microcosm in a our world in a grain of sand and how the world Blake lives in could perhaps be a grain of sand in another world. Fawad insists that this poem sums up the idea of chaos: the science that "describes the cosmos at both extremes." Those extremes according to him were the largeness associated with the theory of relativity and the smallness associated with quantum physics (Fawad's Chaos on the World Wide Web).

Chaos, though, has also been found in more recent works such as in the poems of William Butler Yeats. This Irish poet who won the Nobel Prize in literature is known for his nationalistic poetry that celebrates Ireland as well as its culture and folklore. More importantly, though, Yeats was interested in philosophy.

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