FROM STEAM TO CODE: TECHNOLOGICAL ANXIETY AND POETIC RESPONSE FROM VICTORIAN ENGLAND TO THE DIGITAL AGE
Keywords:
Victorian poetry, digital poetry, technology and literature, ecopoetics, industrial capitalism.Abstract
This article explores the similarities between Victorian and modern digital poetry, examining them thematically and stylistically. It contends that both use the technological advancements of their eras not only to analyze how technology affects faith, society, nature, and human identity but also to reveal questions about humanity's relationship with progress that continue despite variations in technological background. This study demonstrates the vital role poetry plays as a mediator between human values and technological advancement by comparing Victorian poets: Matthew Arnold, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning, and Gerard Manley Hopkins, with modern digital poets: Stephanie Strickland, J. R. Carpenter, and Jason Nelson. Poetry's role in conveying moral dilemmas, encouraging artistic creativity, and challenging technical determinism throughout history is highlighted by such analogies between meaning-making systems, material infrastructures, and moral complicity.
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